


behind enemy lines

by panorama



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Background Relationships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-05-31 07:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panorama/pseuds/panorama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Now,” she turned back to Logan, her palms flat on the counter top as she leaned close to his face. It seemed she had saw right earlier. He was still smiling. He wouldn’t be for long. “I believe I’ll see <i>you</i> in <i>hell</i>.”</p><p>He raised a brow. “Actually you’ll see me here every day. Despite your lack of business, you do have good burgers."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. always where i need to be

Louise had given her father two semesters. Two semesters of college, then she’d see where she’d be.

“Louise, you can’t just _not_ go to college.” Her dad had complained on the car ride home from one of their many trips to Wonder Wharf. They’d gone for Louise’s eighteenth birthday and, of course, the topic of where she wanted to go for college had come up.

Louise had tugged at one of her pigtails, the sensation of not having her bunny ears still foreign to her. “Why not? You didn’t.”

“That’s—it’s not the same thing. And believe me, if my life has taught you anything, it’s that you need to go to college.”

“Gene didn’t.” Louise slumped in her seat, glaring at the stores they passed.

“Well, he’s Gene. But Tina did. And you will too.”

“ _Dad_ ,” she’d groaned. “I’m only planning to take over the restaurant, so why do I need a degree? You don’t have one, and you run it fine.”

“’Fine’? I have my own children run the restaurant because I don’t want to pay anybody. Talk about fine.”

Louise spoke a little quieter this time. “You hired Zeke.”

“That’s…different. Zeke has no plans for the future.”

At that, Louise had turned to her father sharply. “What about college? Did you force him to go?”

“I tried, but you’re my own child. It’s different. Tell you what: give me at least one full year of college. Plans can change, Louise.”

So she’d given him two semesters. A month earlier she had called him and told him she’d come back to help out at the restaurant. She found the classes she’d taken at William Patterson interesting, but she still wanted to follow in her dad’s footsteps. And she didn’t need a degree for that, right?

Besides, from what she’d heard, he needed all the help he could get at the restaurant. Zeke was still working as a table busser and cook. Had been since his junior year of high school. Bob had said it was because Louise would want to do other things than work at the family restaurant, her being in middle school and all, and they needed an extra hand around the joint. But, in reality, it was because Zeke was a good cook and Tina had grown close to Zeke since Jimmy Jr. moved to Ohio his sophomore year of high school. A little too close for Bob’s liking. But, again, he was a good cook.

Gene was off in California trying to be noticed. He had formed a band in his senior year of high school that was legitimate enough to move across the country once out of school. That or it was because his guitar guy’s family was totally loaded.

And Tina was back from college now, but things weren’t the same. Business had gotten a lot better since the Pesto’s booked it out of town, and while it was declining since that spike, it still wasn’t what it had been ten years ago.

Louise had decided to stay in New Brunswick for the summer because there was generally more going on in town, but she opted to let Teddy pick her up and drive her back home.

Teddy texted her when he arrived and she rushed out of her dorm with a quick wave to her roommate. His pick-up was idling at the edge of the dorm room parking lot. She strapped her backpack onto both shoulders and pulled open the passenger side door.

“Hey, Louise. Your dad said I could pick you up.” He said to her as she climbed into the passenger side. Empty soda cans littered the floor at the base of her feet and the worn seat had seen better days.

“Yeah, I know, Teddy. So, tell me, how’s the restaurant holding up?”

“Oh, it’s doing great.” Teddy pulled back into traffic, going a little too slow for Louise’s liking. “Well, not great, but the burgers are great. I mean, they’re always great. Anyway, we’ve got some new competition in town.”

Louise sat up at that. “Competition?”

“Yep. Moved in just after the start of this year.”

The start of that year? Louise hadn’t gotten to check it out because she’d stayed at school over spring break. But it still intrigued her. 

She laughed slightly. “How’s Dad treating that?”

“Oh, he’s handling it well. They don’t take away too much business. Not like those Pesto’s.” Teddy sighed nostalgically, keeping his baby blue eyes on the road ahead. “Yeah, but the owner’s a real nice guy. Stops by almost every day for a burger, so I’m sure you’ll meet him. You know, he used to live nearby.”

Louise had started to drift off after a while. Teddy’s voice always had that effect on her. She’d expected some conflict to keep her interested, but he’d lost her at “handling it well.” What was wrong with some good old fashion competition?

But, she’d barely caught the tail end of his speech. “Really?” If he lived nearby, she figured she’d know him. It wasn’t a very big town.

“Yeah. He was kinda familiar when I met him, but I’m not sure if you know him. Grew up on the rich-end of town?”

He said this like she’d remember him based on this characteristic alone.

“Gotta be more specific than that, Teddy.” She said, fiddling with a loose string on her hoodie. She’d dealt with a lot of rich kids in her childhood career, mostly in putting them in their place.

“He’s well—you’ll meet him, Louise. Maybe you’ll recognize him.”

She doubted it. For the remainder of the trip, Louise dozed off with her head against the windowsill, her head thrumming with the engine of the car.

* * *

 

She woke to the sound of a car door slamming shut. “Louise, we’re here.” Teddy said through the open window on the driver’s side.

Louise groaned. Even though she was excited to see her family again, having Teddy pick her up was not a good idea.

She stretched out her limbs one by one as she climbed out of the car, yawning as she did so.

Teddy held the door for her as she slung her backpack over her shoulder and entered the familiar restaurant she’d grown to love when she was young. Her dad said she could come back later in the week or month to get the rest of her things from her dorm. No one was going to be using it, she’d been told by the head of the school. No one but her old roommate.

For now, it was the essentials. And her growling stomach told her it was essential she get something in it. Particularly one of her dad’s classic burgers.

“Hey, it’s baby Belcher, back from college!” Zeke greeted her from behind the counter. He was scrubbing town the tabletop.

Louise noticed there were a few customers chatting in booths, but, otherwise, it was a normal day.

“Hey, Zeke.” She took a seat at the bar, dropping her backpack at her feet. Her relationship with Zeke was generally neutral. She still found him annoying from time to time, but Tina really liked him, so she guessed she had to, too. Or, at least, it seemed like Tina really, really liked him. She’d never admit to it out loud.

She leaned her elbows against the counter. “Have you seen my dad anywhere?”

Zeke scratched behind his ear. “Think he said something about picking something up at the store?”

Louise blew out a breath as she crossed her arms and leaned her head forward against them. “’Think’, Zeke? Or know?”

He chuckled slightly. “Relax, cool breeze, he’ll be back anytime.” He continued to wipe down the counter around her. She finally dared to lift her head.

A mischievous grin crossed her face. “Well, where’s your girlfriend?”

It was hard to make Zeke flustered, but calling Tina his girlfriend sure enough did it. His face went beet red, right up to his ears. His brown eyes flitted around nervously. “I’m not sure—T’s not my girlfriend, Louise, I told you that!” He avoided meeting her eyes as he continued with his work. “I think she’s on the grill.”

At that moment, Tina left the diner’s bathroom.

“At least, I thought she was.” Zeke’s face broke out into a huge grin, earlier conversation erased entirely. “Hey, T-bird. Look who’s finally here.”

Tina grinned at her younger sister. Tina wasn’t one for big smiles, but, over the years, she had grown closer to Louise and started reserving her smiles for her.

“Louise! How was college? Wow, I haven’t seen you since, like, Christmas.” Tina took a seat at the bar next to Louise.

“Fine, fine. Hey—don’t hug me. Listen, you seen Dad around?”

“He went to get some garlic from the store.”

“Ha! I knew he went to get somethin’.” Zeke said, helpfully.

Louise sighed. “You win, Zeke.”

“Win what?”

“Nothing.”

Tina smiled as Zeke finished cleaning the counter, a stupid grin on his face. “I should get back to the grill. Things are really heating up around here.”

There was a total of two customers in the restaurant, not including Teddy, who already had a burger waiting for him, it seemed.

“Hey, Linda!” He called towards the kitchen, mouth still full of burger. “Louise is here, Linda!”

“Oh God,” Louise muttered as her mom came out from the kitchen, dusting her hands on the apron around her waist.

Linda’s face brightened upon seeing her youngest daughter seated at the bar. “Oh! My baby’s back home, finally!”

She shuffled over to Louise, attempting to throw her arms around her. Louise tried to resist, groaning, “Okay, ugh, Mom. You saw me over Christmas…it hasn’t—hasn’t been that long.” But, eventually, Linda was too overpowering to resist and Louise submitted to a hug.

Her mother’s arms squeezed her tiny frame as she cooed, “We haven’t seen you in so _long_. Oh, your father is just going to be so happy to see you!”

“Alright, alright,” Louise said as Linda finally pulled away, brushing imaginary dust from herself, just as Bob walked into the restaurant.

“Dad!” Louise jumped down from her stool and ran over to her dad, throwing her arms around him. She still wasn’t nearly as tall as him, but she could throw her arms around his shoulders if she stood on her tip-toes. Louise was still relatively pissed she turned out to be the shortest of the family. While Tina had reached five seven and Gene was nailing six feet, Louise was stuck permanently at five foot five, which wasn’t _short_ , but it was by Belcher standards.

“Oh!” Bob cried out in surprise as she locked her arms around him. He was getting older, a few strands of gray hair already appearing in his hair and mustache. “Louise,” he choked, “You’re, uh, kind of hurting me here.”

“Right, sorry, Dad. I just missed you so much, you son of a bitch.” Louise released her hold on him.

“Don’t call your father that, Louise.” Linda said from behind the counter.

Louise ignored her mother, smiling up at her dad and lightly punching his arm. “So, what have you got planned for me? Dishes, grilling, bussing tables, I’ll do it.”

She followed Bob behind the counter, shoving her hands into her hoodie pockets.

“Missed working here, huh?” he joked.

“What? Pssh, me? Miss working here? As if,” Louise leaned forward against the counter with her arms crossed.

Her dad started discussing what it was he had planned, but something had caught Louise’s eye outside the restaurant. A shock of light blonde hair, a stupid grin on an ugly face—

But, _no_.

It couldn’t be. _Not him_.

Pieces and fragments of what Teddy had said earlier started to fit together in her head. _From the rich end of town, familiar to Teddy_ (of course! He had been there the day of the whole garden fiasco). Louise hadn’t even thought it would be him, because Teddy had spoken so nicely of him.

 _Impossible_. Though she wouldn’t put it behind him to be so deceiving.

But, of course, it just had to be—

“ _Logan_ ,” she spat out as he sauntered into the restaurant. “No. Way.”

Louise got some satisfaction from how he seemed shocked to see her, but, just as quickly as that look had appeared, a grin split his face. She hated that grin. And how his eyebrows made him appear permanently pissed.

His lanky frame strode over to the other side of the counter, standing directly in front of her. He seemed to have ditched his old stupid clothing choices and instead wore a black button down shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A pin on the right side of his torso announced him as the owner and manager of Bush’s Bowling and Arcade.

An entertainment center? Pathetic. What kind of competition was that?

“Oh ho ho, what have we here? _Four ears_? Oh, but without the ears I see,” His eyes flitted to the top of her head. She felt herself straighten up, trying to look him in the eye. He was now leaning over the counter, making the job easier for her.

“Hello, Logan. Still as stupid looking as ever. Ever thought to change your look? Your hair? Your entire face?” Louise crossed her arms across her chest.

His eyebrows turned downwards. “Now, me and your father—”

“Your father and I,”

“Have been building such good rapport, it’d be a shame if you were to ruin it now.”

“Yes, it appears you _have_ ,” she turned her sharp gaze on her father now, who was trying to avoid her eyes, just like Zeke had earlier. Incredible.

In truth, though, Louise wanted to scream. A familiar feeling of dread and disappointment filled her stomach. It was just like last time. He hadn’t even thought to _tell her_?

“Louise, look. I didn’t want to start another stupid competition between another local business. Plus, Logan’s already been so nice to us. He even gives us some business!” Bob said, looking her in the eyes now.

Louise turned back to Logan. “Bet your burgers suck, huh? Have to get them here, right?”

He sat down at the bar. She was right. She could tell by the look on his face.

She turned back to her father. “Didn’t want unfriendly business, huh?”

“No, I told you—”

“Well, now that I’m here, you’re gonna get it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw Logan _smile_. Oh, he was gonna get it.

“Louise, I don’t know if that’s such a good—”

She held a hand up in the air, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Nothing too big. Just a little bit of friendly, un-friendly competition. That’s all.”

Bob muttered, “That doesn’t make any sense.” She ignored him.

“Now,” she turned back to Logan, her palms flat on the counter top as she leaned close to his face. It seemed she had saw right earlier. He was still smiling. He wouldn’t be for long. “I believe I’ll see _you_ in _hell_.”

He raised a brow. “Actually you’ll see me here every day. Despite your lack of business, you do have good burgers. Oh, and I believe that would be mine.” He looked away from her and Louise followed his gaze, seeing Tina leave the kitchen with a brown paper bag. She sidled up next to her sister and handed the bag to Logan.

“Thank you,” he said pointedly, turning to leave. He opened the door to the restaurant, but turned back to Louise at the last minute. “And I’ll be seeing you soon, Louise.”

She would be sure to slap him next time. Right on his annoying face.

The restaurant was quieter after he left. Zeke finally broke the silence.

“Woowee. Isn’t this gonna be fun! It reminds me of old family reunions back home!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case anyone wanted to know, louise is currently 19 in this and logan is 26.
> 
> ALSO: the chapter titles are from songs i either 1) associate with these life ruiners or 2) think goes with the chapter.
> 
> thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed! i'll update relatively soon.


	2. rock bottom

Louise woke to the sound of construction outside. She had decided to room in her old bedroom, refusing her dad’s offer to allow her to sleep in Gene’s considerably bigger bed. She pulled on her familiar green hoodie and the pair of boots she had come home in. She decided to pull her hair into her regular pigtails. She had never really gotten over not wearing her bunny hat, and wearing her hair in the familiar way had helped her cope. And she’d never really stopped.

Her hands now wrapped around a mug of coffee, she stepped outside of their apartment and finally noticed the source of the noise.

“Zeke’s Bar and Grill?” she whispered to herself. Where Jimmy Pesto’s sign once stood was now replaced by a sign proclaiming just this.

Zeke was opening up his own place?

She charged into the diner for answers. Tina was seated at the bar talking with Zeke, which Bob didn’t look happy about. But, even though Zeke proved an ever present distraction form Tina’s work, he refused to fire him. He’d offered a lot to their menu, Bob had claimed.

Her raven hair was pulled back into a ponytail with her bangs out. Her boots beat out a rhythm against the bottom of the counter.

Louise said hello to both of them before carrying herself back to the kitchen. Her dad was so focused on the two twenty-somethings out front he didn’t seem to notice her arrival.

“Whoa, ease up on the spatula, Dad.” Louise said easily as she leaned against the sink, her hands wrapped around her mug. Bob jumped at the sound of her, his dark eyes wide. “Hey, I thought you liked Zeke anyway?”

Bob cleared his throat, looking back at the burgers on the grill. Looked like he had burnt some. He heaved a long sigh. “I do. As a cook. What I don’t like is him distracting my daughter from work.” He looked through the open window. “Tina, get back to cleaning tables.”

“Right. Sorry, Dad.” Louise heard Tina respond.

“Speaking of Zeke, what’s, uh, going on across the street?” She ventured.

“Oh, right, that.” Bob rubbed a hand against his forehead, distracted. “I forgot to tell you about that, with the whole Logan thing.”

Louise’s stomach growled at the thought of having to see his dumb face again. Or maybe she was just hungry.

Bob looked back at her, his brows drawn in apology. “I hope you can forgive me. For, you know, not warning you. I thought you would have grown past it.”

Louise snorted. “’Grown past it’. It’s like you don’t even know me, Dad.”

“Yeah, well, just don’t start too much trouble.”

“No promises.” Louise shifted on her feet, a thousand ideas of how to annoy Logan already spinning though her head. “Anyway, what about Zeke?”

“Right. Zeke is starting his own business across the street. He’s been saving up for it for a long time and I finally agreed to help him with it.”

Louise pulled her brows together. “I’m lost. Isn’t this…bad for you?”

Bob leaned against his left foot, flipping a burger over. “Well, no. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know yet. We’re just going to see where it goes. It’s more of a sports place, I guess. Zeke promised he’d try to bring business over here, too.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “Okay, Dad, sure.”

“It opens in a month. He’s even got a very special guest booked to perform at the grand opening.” Bob was giving Louise mixed vibes. He seemed proud of this fact, but also a little nervous.

“Who is—”

“ _Somebody_ clogged the toilet and it wasn’t me, so don’t bother asking!”

Louise set her mug (which read WORLD’S GREATEST BOSS (her dad’s)) down on the sill of the open window, rushing out of the kitchen. Sure enough, standing just outside of the bathroom door was Gene.

Gene had become the tallest Belcher ever since Bob started shrinking (“It’s not _shrinking_ , it’s just. Aging. I’m coming into myself.”), but he still hadn’t managed to lose all of his baby fat. And he couldn’t ever both to get a real haircut.

He stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, wearing a purple and blue plaid button down.

“Gene, seriously? You couldn’t bother to get a haircut before coming back?” Louise said, a smile on her face.

“Of course! The minute I walk in here, I’m thoroughly critiqued. No respect in this family.” Louise laughed as she took a seat at the bar next to Gene.

“I think it looks nice, Gene.” Tina supplied helpfully, climbing over a booth to clean its table.

“Thank you,”

“Hey, uh,” Zeke leaned forward against the counter, “Maybe you should get it cut like mine. You’d like it more then, right, T?” His chocolate eyes looked hopefully at Tina, who was still awkwardly straddling a booth.

However, she wasn’t as easily flustered as Zeke, and faced him calmly. She seemed to consider this before turning back to him. “No, I think Gene’s haircut is more in-fashion these days.”

“Ha!” Gene shouted. He was sitting facing away from the counter, his elbows propped on the table behind him.

Louise saw Zeke curiously touch his own hair.

“Hey,” Bob shouted from the kitchen, “is anyone even doing actual work out there? We’re going to be swamped come lunchtime, and I have a burger that needs delivering.”

Louise cupped her chin in hand. “We do deliveries? Where to?”

“Uh,” Bob yet again was avoiding her gaze, “it’s—this one’s for Gene.”

Gene held up a hand, not facing his father. “No thanks, Dad. My time is done here. I’m much too famous to be delivering _burgers_.”

Her father groaned. “Uh, Tina, then. Would you mind running this up before it gets cold?”

“Sorry, Dad, you told me to clean these tables.”

“God, Zeke can do that!”

“But we’ll be swamped soon.”

“Dad!” Louise stood on the railing of her stool, her palms flat on the countertop as she stared directly at Bob. “Why can’t I just do it?”

Bob seemed to be considering something of great importance, a slow whine building up into a “Fine!”

“Great!” Louise hopped down from the stool, going behind the counter to retrieve the paper bag from the window. “Where to?” she echoed.

Bob muttered something unintelligible. Louise stood on her tip-toes, her ear leaning towards him. “Sorry, what was that?”

Another long sigh. “Bush’s Bowling and Arcade,”

Louise was already walking backwards towards the door, a thousand ideas shooting through her mind yet again. “Oh, this is Logan’s order?”

Her dad was looking down at the grill. “Yes,” he said in one breath “Don’t poison it, Louise, or you won’t ever get to take over the restaurant.”

“Oh, I won’t,” her back was already against the door, “I just want to see his place, that’s all.”

 

* * *

 

Logan could see her coming a mile away. Except, not literally a mile. At least—he didn’t think. He wasn’t the best judge of how long a mile exactly was.

She strode up to the counter, where he was giving out bowling shoes. She was wearing that green hoodie of hers, the same color green as the frock she used to wear up until she was in middle school. Then Logan had left. Went off to Princeton and forgot about the girl with the black hair and bunny ears. Who wasn’t easy to pick on, but made it so tempting.

Now here she was. Bringing him his order of the Burger of the Day: I Would Bee Delighted (served with honey). God, he hoped she hadn’t poisoned it.

She plopped the bag down in front of him, then leaned against the counter, telling him she wasn’t going anywhere. Logan matched her, folding his arms.

“Hello, _Logan_. Do you always order for delivery? Or is your ass feeling particularly lazy today?” The grin on her face told him she thought she was winning.

“Do they always send someone like you? Or is your dad just looking to be rid of my service?”

Game, set, match.

Her hazel eyes narrowed and she snorted before turning her head away, to watch the front doors. No one was coming in. It would have been embarrassing for business to appear so slow but 1) it was a Thursday and 2) the sound of bowling balls hitting the hardwood begged to differ.

“Your comebacks were always pathetic.”

Harsh. Maybe ten years ago, but he was sure he had upped his game.

This was probably Princeton’s work. He still loathed his mother for sending him away. Well, he always loathed his mother, but he loathed her more for this. He had to work his ass off to try and get in in the first place. He was sure Cynthia had, too, but it wasn’t worth it. Not if he still ended up in this town, picking fights with a girl at least six years younger than him.

“Hey,” he scooched his arms forward on the mahogany, only taking his eyes off hers for a second. She turned back around and he tried to ignore how she looked when caught slightly off guard: her eyes got circular and her mouth slightly parted. “Did you know we don’t _just_ have bowling here?”

“Yeah, you have an arcade, too. Congrats, dumbass.”

Logan scratched behind his ear. “God, you’re annoying.”

“Touché,”

“No—we also have laser tag,” He wasn’t sure why he was eager to share this news with her. Maybe so he could cream her pigtail-wearing butt in a game.

She lifted a dark brow. “Wow, couldn’t put that in the name of the place? What’s so wrong with Bush’s Bowling, Arcade, and Laser Tag?”

He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. Was she joking? Of course, she was. When wasn’t she? “Gotta get a point out. Attract attention, draw in customers. Not write an essay.”

“Okay, listen here, Logan,” she finally turned her whole body around, laying her hands out on the counter in front of her. “That sounds really nice, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“Right, why _are_ you still here, exactly?” He tilted his head at her, glad to see when this made her slightly angry. But she only let it show for a second.

She took a deep breath. “I want to try your burgers.” Then her face broke out in a slightly ashamed grin.

Logan snorted. “You already know. They suck.”

“Hey, hey, now. You don’t want to refuse business, do you? I’m only trying to repay the favor of you giving business to my place. Not so bad, right?”

Wheels spun in Logan’s head. He didn’t know why he should give Louise one of their burgers. It wasn’t anything to be proud of. He didn’t make them. He didn’t know how they were made. What mattered was that she knew how successful his business had been, how good—

It hit him. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it earlier.

He matched her grin. “Sure, thing, Four Ears.”

Game, set, match.

“Miranda,” he turned to the girl polishing shoes behind him, “you won’t mind running the front for a bit. I’m taking a five minute break. I should be back soon.”

She nodded eagerly. Because he was the boss. And he could do that.

Maybe Princeton wasn’t such a bad idea after all. He heard Louise snort behind him. She didn’t even know.

 

* * *

 

Their eating area hadn’t even been in use for a year and it was already starting to look bad. The light over the counter needed to be changed. Logan added that to his ever growing mental list of things-he-needed-to-get-done-as-manager.

Louise voiced as much out loud.

“Ugh, if your burgers are anything like the state of this place, I may change my mind after all.”

Logan smiled down at her. She only came up to his shoulders, but she carried a presence that made the workers in the eating area peer questionably at her.

“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions too soon. You might be surprised.”

She gave him a _look_. “I thought you said they sucked.”

“ _I_ think they suck.”

“Hey!” he heard his friend Scotty shout from the kitchen. That guy had ears like a bat.

“Sorry, Scotty!” Logan leaned down to whisper into Louise’s ear. “You remember Scotty, right?”

She jerked away from him. “Why would I remember your stupid friends?”

He straightened and shrugged. “You remembered me.”

“You’re hard to forget.” And with that she left him for the counter where she ordered a small cheeseburger. He watched her produce a dollar bill from her back pocket. He suddenly found he was patting down himself. Had she taken that from him?

“Hey,” he sidled up next to her. “I thought your law-unabiding father didn’t pay you guys.”

She didn’t look at him, but her mouth quirked at one corner. “First of all, unabiding isn’t a word.” Shawn handed her a burger on a tray, which she accepted, leading them both to a booth by the bathrooms. “Second, we don’t, you’re right. I stole it out of my mom’s wallet.”

Of course.

He slid into the seat opposite her, and felt an eager anticipation rumble in his stomach. Maybe after this, she’d leave him alone.

For whatever reason, this thought disappointed him. He didn’t want to stop seeing her, but that was because he wanted to keep picking on her. That was why.

He just didn’t want her doing it the other way around.

Louise took a bit of her burger. Chewed. Swallowed. “Not so bad. I mean,” she laughed, “ours are _way_ better, but nice try.” She reached across the table to give him a pat on the arm, unsuccessfully.

“Hm,” was all he had to say.

It took all of five minutes for it to hit. It may have been a record. He saw her eyes go wide, a lighter shade of hazel under the fluorescents above them. He merely smiled and jabbed a thumb towards the bathrooms behind him.

She didn’t emerge until thirteen minutes later.

“So,” he spun around in his seat, his arm resting against the back of the booth, “you were saying?”

She held a hand out in front of her. She wanted money.

“Oh,” he raised a brow, “don’t you know? My orders are all pre-paid.”

She let out a long groan, stomping her feet as she made towards the exit. Before leaving, she said in a scarily calm voice, “This isn’t over, Logan.”

He was sure it was far from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a slower chapter. but i'm working towards something. i can promise a longer next chapter :)


	3. she's so mean

“Are you _sure_ you don’t wanna talk about it?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Are you _sure_?”

“Yes!”

Louise was turned over on her side, facing the wall next to her bed. She eyed its bright shade of orange, the color she had chosen to change it to when she’d turned thirteen. Unlike Tina, her childhood faze and fascination for stuffed animals had passed over by puberty, but the orange was getting annoying. She’d have to get her own place soon.

Linda knew better than to try and sit on the bed with her daughter. She stood hesitantly at the door. Louise could practically imagine the look on her face: the desperate need to heal her daughter mingled with her nervous fear of just who her daughter was. And how she’d react.

“Oh, my poor baby,”

Louise let out a groan, covering her ears with her pillow. “I’m _fine_ , Mom!” 

To be honest, she was more humiliated than physically ill. The smirk on Logan’s face when she’d stormed out of his place had made her sick to her stomach. The fact that that nerd thought _he_ was winning.

But, it was no matter. Just a minor set-back. She’d send him running out of town before the year was over.

“You know, diarrhea’s not something you should be ashamed of. Your father gets it all the time.”

“Mom, _please_ ,” Louise sat up on her bed down. No doubt, her black hair was probably messy and falling out of its ponytails. Linda bit her lip, looking like she was fighting down the urge to fix it. “I’m feeling better already.” As a quiet afterthought, she added, “And it’s not that.”

“Well, what is it, sweetie?”

_Damn_. She’d heard her.

“Nothing—it’s just Logan.”

“Oh,” Linda threw out a hand as if to say ‘please.” “That boy has always grinded your gears. Don’t even get me started on his mother.” She shuddered, making Louise smile slightly.

“Aw, there’s a smile. Dinner’s ready downstairs, anyway. Feel like eating anything?” Linda paused with her hand on the doorknob.

“Yeah,” Louise’s grin widened, “I think I can still shove something down into me.”

 

* * *

 

“Lin! This is great news! What are you talking about? We _have_ to win this year.” Bob turned to Gene, who was shoveling peas into his mouth. “And, Gene, you’re not invited.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t listening. What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t know, Bobby.” Linda said, scraping a fork across her nearly-empty plate. “I don’t want you to lose your mind, that’s all.”

“Lose my mind? Lin, remember what this did last time to business? I want to win, but even if we lose, we’ll be packed!”

Linda finally decided to give in. “Oh, alright. We’ll enter.”

Linda had decided to bring up the upcoming burger cook-off happening in two months. She was hesitant to let Bob enter, knowing how it crushed him to lose last time, and the fact that it had led their children to theft, but it clearly made Bob happy.

“So, uh, who else is competing in this thing?” Louise ventured.

“They don’t know yet. It’s a very selective process, Louise. They have to narrow it down to just three contestants.”

“And you’re so sure you’re gonna make it in?”

Bob considered this before turning back towards his own plate. “Eat your carrots, Louise.”

 

* * *

 

“Louise, how many times do I have to tell you not to wear my pajamas?” Louise was manning the front counter while Zeke was on the grill. Bob had just made a dramatic entrance, pajama pants in hand.

Louise snorted. “Wow, Dad, didn’t know Mom had you do laundry.”

“You know, I appreciate that, Bob. You do you,”

And Logan was there. Louise swore he made the restaurant smell ten times worse.

He popped a french fry in his mouth before turning bright blue eyes on her. He smirked at Louise and she wrinkled her nose, cringing. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Bob throw his hands up at his sides and sigh.

“Remind me again why you can’t just eat this at your own shithole? Why do I have to stand here and watch you eat it?” Louise said to him, venom in her voice.

“Well,” he brushed crumbs of his annoyingly pristine tie, “Bob told me Gene was back in town. And I couldn’t miss catching up with my favorite Belcher kid.”

Louise wrinkled her nose even more. “Aw, gross! Gene’s in close with you, too?”

“Louise!” Bob brought her attention back to him, but not before she caught Logan roll his eyes at her, a move that made her want to throttle him. “You _have_ to go get the rest of your stuff sometime this week.”

There was a commotion as Gene loudly entered the restaurant and proceeded to slap hands with Logan, something else that made her want to throw up for the fifth time in two weeks. She tried to speak over the two idiots currently conversing in front of her.

“I _would_ , but isn’t the car currently in the shop? And I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like hiking it all the way to New Brunswick.” She started counting the cash in the register, something she did when she was bored and looking to slip a little cash so that no one would guess it was gone.

“I offered to have Teddy drive you.”

“Ugh, Dad, _Teddy_? I won’t have the energy to pack all my stuff in his car after listening to one of his boring stories.” Mort was out of the question, too. Bob refused to ask after the whole Tina-wrecked-the-car situation ten years ago.

No one would notice if she stole twenty dollars, surely.

“Besides,” she shut the register, “he has a pick-up.”

Gene decided to interrupt their conversation. “It’s a pick-up, Louise. It’s supposed to pick stuff up. Should be perfect for your situation. Sheesh, you can see who got the brains in the family.”

Louise sighed loudly as him and Logan high-fived, though she could have sworn Logan didn’t look as into it as he usually was.

“That’s not the point, Gene. The point is, I don’t want all my stuff outside, with the chance of falling out of the car.”

“Ooh,” Logan spun his chair away from Gene and back to her. Louise instinctively deepened her frown upon looking at him. “High maintenance. Didn’t really peg you as such.”

“I’ll peg your head to my wall after I’m done with you.” She retorted and he put up his hands in mock defense.

“No need to get all riled up, Four Ears. It was a compliment—kind of.”

No it wasn’t.

“Anyway, if you really need a ride, I can drive you.” He shrugged his thin shoulders as Louise narrowed her eyes, not saying anything.

Bob managed to say something, however. “Wait, really? You’d do that?”

“I mean, sure. My car’s pretty nice and it’s in pretty good condition.” He drummed his fingers against the counter.

Louise coughed out a laugh. “ _Of course_ you have a nice car. Pretty big, right? And shiny. Bet it cost you a lot. You go around cruising for chicks at night, Logan? Is that what it’s for?”

Logan clenched his jaw and glared at her. “No,” he choked out, “I use it for other things. Like when I go out of town, _Louise_.”

“Oh, but you do use it for picking up girls, right? Because, I mean,” she laughed slightly, “I just can’t _imagine_ what else you’d use it for. Not when everything’s within walking distance.”

“Okay,” Bob interrupted, “I’m not sure if I can trust the two of you to be in a car together. Can you just, like, lend me the car, so I can help Louise pack her stuff up?”

Logan looked like he’d rather Louise cut off his head and peg it to her wall. “It’s my _car_.”

“Yeah, well, that’s my _daughter_.”

“Alright, Dad!” Louise jumped excitedly and Logan frowned like a five year old, first at Bob, then at Louise. “Now go fight him!”

“Louise, I’m—I’m not fighting anybody. Look, you can drive her and everything, I understand you don’t want anyone else ruining your car, but you have to promise not to fight too much.” Bob warned.

“Not too much,” Louise remarked wistfully, “but we can fight, right? Just not enough to get us both killed? Or me killed?”

Bob huffed. ‘Whatever, I’m just tired of you wearing my clothes. Do you realize what I’ve been having to wear to bed? Clothes I haven’t worn in years. Your mom’s worried about me.”

“You? Dad, I have to spend at least an hour in the car with this guy.” She jerked a thumb towards Logan and he scowled at her.

“I’m sorry, but if you won’t go with Teddy…”

“I know, I know,” Louise opened the register again and slipped out a twenty. When she looked up, she caught Logan’s gaze on her, his light brows pulled together. She stuck her tongue out at him and he mimicked her, something she didn’t think someone his age was capable of.

She hoped she wasn’t driving, because she’d surely wreck the car.

 

* * *

 

His car was just as she’d expected. It was a big black SUV, parked in the lot behind his business. Its coat shined in the late morning sun, and a sticker on its bumper warned people against texting while driving.

Louise had to snort at that. Out of character, indeed.

She’d arrived at his place at 12:00 and he’d told her to wait out in the lot by his car while he made arrangements at work, changing schedules and putting someone in charge. That kind of thing. Now, she was leaning against the passenger side door, checking her phone every thirty seconds to see how long she’d been waiting there.

It had been five minutes.

She saw him leave through the back door, locking it behind him. He shoved a hand into his pants pocket, stuffing the keys away and pulling out his car keys.

“Cynthia bought this for you, right?” She squinted up at him, the sun blinding her in the eyes.

He fumbled with his keys, blatantly ignoring her. When he’d finally managed to unlock the doors, she pulled her side open and climbed in. He started the engine and Louise reached for the rear-view mirror, adjusting it so it was focused on her, just to annoy him.

He sputtered, reaching for it and re-adjusting it. “It’s like you _want_ me to kill you.”

“Anything so I don’t have to look at you. Or hear you. Or smell you.” She gave him a fake smile and he mock-smiled back, pulling the car out of the lot.

Louise pulled her feet up onto the seat. “Not your first car, I’m assuming.” She peered around the car and noticed a crap ton of trash in her side’s door pocket. Mostly napkins, fast food bags, and candy wrappers.

He kept his eyes on the road. “No, you’re right.” He cleared his throat. “Dad got me a Jeep for my sixteenth birthday, which I wrecked, when I was eighteen. This was more of a going-away-to-college gift.”

She faked a sigh of sympathy. “And you still can’t get one for yourself. Still driving the car Mommy gave to you.”

He made an incoherent noise, running a hand through his hair. “Why would I need to?”

“To have something you got yourself. I don’t know, that’s what I’d want. Wouldn’t want to be driving something I didn’t earn forever.”

Louise wasn’t watching him, but she thought she saw the corner of his mouth quiver out of the corner of her eye. Her suspicions were answered when he said, “But this one’s so good at picking up chicks.”

She reached over and punched him in the arm, suppressing a smile. Logan swerved slightly as he took his left hand off the wheel to clutch his bruised arm.

“Don’t _do_ that, Louise.”

“Should have gotten a good slap in, too. Oh! We’re supposed to stop at the restaurant for cardboard boxes.”

“This would have been valuable knowledge five minutes ago.” Logan made a U-turn at the next light they reached.

“Sorry,” she said. She wasn’t. She turned towards the window so he wouldn’t see the smile on her face.

 

* * *

 

When they finally pulled out on the highway, she could tell he was dying to ask her something. The way his eyes would flit over to her every once and while, how he tapped his hands on the steering wheel, lowered the volume on the radio, and opened his mouth every once and while, as if he made to say something, but then covered it up with a yawn. So it came as no surprise when he finally did.

“So, uh, what happened?” He glanced over at her quickly before looking back ahead. “To your ears, I mean?”

Louise reached up and touched her ears. “Still here, as far as I know.”

He let out a sound of frustration. “You know what I mean.”

She slumped down in her seat, stretching her legs out. “I grew out of them. Both physically and figuratively. By the time I reached eighth grade, they were already getting to be too small. By high school, it became one of the sole reasons why I had next to no friends besides Rudy.” She added later, “Besides the fact that I didn’t want any friends, of course.”

“Of course.” At least twenty seconds passed by in silence. “I never thought you’d let that happen, you know. Let other people get to you”

She stared out the window when she said, “You got to me all the time.”

“That’s different.”

“Is it?”

Another solid minute passed before Louise let out a soft chuckle. “It got to the point where I’d have to take them off. I never used to do that. Then, when I’d try to put them back on, they wouldn’t fit. I’d have Mom try to bobby pin them on my head because they wouldn’t fit fully over it.”

His knuckles are white on the wheel. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m sorry for taking them.”

She laughed louder at that. “Relax, you already apologized ten years ago.”

“I didn’t mean it then.”

“But you do now? Okay. Well, it doesn’t matter now. If anything, I’m glad they’re gone. Had to grow out of them sometime.” She straightened in her seat and propped her feet up on the dashboard in an effort to dispel the emotional tension in the SUV. He didn’t even yell at her for it.

He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. Louise decided she had to do _something_ to break the silence. The radio was on, playing music softly, but it wasn’t enough to fill the void of quiet. She reached over and started flipping through stations.

Noticing what she was doing, he shifted his gaze back and forth between her and the road. “Don’t like what I had on?”

“Don’t act so offended.”

“I—I’m not, just—what’re you doing?” He was trying to look at her out of the corner of his eye, his eyes gone wide.

Finally having found a country station she turned the volume up to forty and put the bass on three.

“You got bass on this thing? Nice. I take back my earlier comments.” But she doubted he heard her, and there wasn’t much bass to country songs. But, either way, she still grinned from ear to ear, thumping a hand on her thigh.

“Louise!” He groaned, reaching over to turn down the volume, his fingers fumbling with the switch. She continued patting her leg as his scowl deepened and he returned to facing the road, finally deciding to turn off the radio entirely. She deeply enjoyed the frustrated look on his face.

“ _Hey_ , that was my favorite song!” she protested.

“Somehow, I doubt that.” She could tell he was fighting down a smile. Her own smile dropped away. She’d failed in successfully annoying him, it seemed.

She’d get another try.

 

* * *

 

Parking was hell, but Logan finally managed to find a space.

“Soo,” he turned fully towards her once turning down the car, “William Patterson, huh? I don’t know if you know, but I went to Princeton.”

Louise scoffed. “Yeah, and where’d that get you? Working three stores down from me?”

“Don’t act so special.”

“Actually, I think I was implying the _opposite_.”

He threw open his door with a “Whatever.”

They both went around to the back of the car. Logan carried half the folded cardboard boxes under one arm while Louise hugged the other half to her chest, as well as a few empty trash bags.

“My roommate shouldn’t be there. She has classes all day, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” She said as they entered the stairwell of her old dorm building.

After three flights of stairs and a trip to her room at the end of the hallway, Logan was starting to look like he’d pass out.

“Not too much for you, is it, Bush?” She eyed him while turning her old keys in the lock.

“Nope,” he huffed, leaning against the wall for support.

Upon walking in, Louise could see that her bed was unmade, just as she’d left it. And Becca hadn’t thought to fix it for her. She had only joked about this when she left, but she’d thought her roommate would go ahead and make her bed for her anyways. Apparently not.

“No. Way.”

Louise quickly saw what had caught Logan’s attention. Hanging over her bed were her old pink bunny ears. He practically ran across the room and grabbed them, trying to shove them over his head. Except, they couldn’t fit over his big-ass head and only sat atop it.

He scrunched his forehead in frustration, looking up at the hat.

“What made you think they would fit on you if they didn’t fit on me?” Louise began gathering items and putting them in boxes. The other stuff she didn’t want, she tossed in a garbage bag.

He merely shrugged. “I don’t know.” He plucked it from his head, eyeing it in his hand. “You know, these things are pretty special. They did some good work for me.”

Louise snorted. “Yeah, okay. So tell me, how does a hat make your PSAT scores go up, again?”

Logan jerked his head up and peered curiously at her. “You remember that?”

“Yeah, because I remember thinking: what kind of idiot says this shit?” She rifled through her closet, selecting a few pairs of leggings and jeans to go into a box and throwing out a shirt she couldn’t believe she’d actually bought.

He chuckled slightly before realizing why they were there. He threw her hat at her chest and bent over to clear out the space under her bed in one fluid motion. Caught off guard, Louise stared dumbly down at the hat. Brow furrowed in concentration, she finally decided to put it in a cardboard box with the rest of her clothes.

That son of a bitch had a point.

However, before Louise could dwell on it too long, Logan pulled out from under her bed with a hysterical laugh. “What the _hell_ is this?”

She shouldn’t have felt intimidated by Logan, but this surely did it.

“A Kupi Kochi night light,” Louise murmured.

Logan leaned towards her. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“A Kupi Kochi night light, _Logan_!” She balled her fists at her sides.

That sent him doubling over. “How old are you? Nine?”

“I _was_. At one point in my life, believe it or not.”

Logan tossed it to her, which she barely caught. “Why’d you bring it to college, though?”

“Sentimental reasons,”

He shrugged. “I guess that makes sense.”

For a half a second, she considered throwing it away. She actually did. But right before they left, she dug it out of the trash and threw it in the only open cardboard box left. Logan laughed at her for it and she punched him in the arm again, which shut him up.

Maybe he wasn’t to be taken seriously after all.

 

* * *

 

“Wow, you guys actually made it back alive.”

“Don’t act so surprised, Dad,” Louise shoved past her Dad as he helped Logan handle the boxes. She darted into the house before them, taking the steps two at a time (or, at least, _trying_ to).

She had her bunny ears shoved inside her hoodie and when she reached her room, she whipped them out. Her feet wandered in circles as she decided on where she’d put them.

Her eyes caught on a framed photo of her and Tina before Louise’s first homecoming dance. And Tina’s last. Tina and Linda had barely managed to wrestle Louise into a dress and she was still trying to get used to not wearing her ears at the time the picture was taken.

Louise adjusted them so it looked like the framed photo was wearing the hat. Satisfied, she shuffled out of her room to go downstairs and finishing helping her Dad, nearly running right into Logan on her way out.

He grunted in surprise.

“Watch where you’re going, dumbass.” Louise told him, before hurrying back around him.

She could have sworn she heard a laugh coming from her room behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if i didn't know any better i'd think louise was starting to care (but she hides it well) :) also, just a reminder i've decided to start a fic at possibly the Worst Time Ever, and i've got to start studying for finals sometime. i'm not sure how much that'll interfere with my writing, but hopefully not too much. i can generally stay on top of things
> 
> also thanks for the kudos, comments, ect! it means a lot and i hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as i'm enjoying writing it:D


	4. kiss with a fist

Louise threw the bowling ball on the lane so hard, she was surprised it didn’t break. The ball, she means. Or the floor, really.

“Easy, Louise-ey, or you’ll find yourself paying for damages.”

“Shut up, Zeke,”

She was aiming for a spare when she didn’t make a strike, but only one pin was left wobbling. She nearly stormed down the lane and knocked it over herself.

“I don’t get why you’re so upset, Louise,” Tina crossed her legs from where she was sitting next to Zeke, “You’re still way ahead of all of us.”

“But not for long!” Gene was already getting ready to go before the barriers had lifted.

“It’s not that.” Louise sat dramatically at the row of seats across from Zeke and Tina, her arms crossed over her chest. “Just… _look_ at this place.”

“I don’t know.” Zeke leaned back in his seat. “It’s a hellava lot nicer than that old place. Before it got shut down ‘course.”

“Yeah, and it has a fun and friendly atmosphere. I’d give it a solid nine out of ten stars.”

“That’s nice, T, but you’re not getting my point.” She wrinkled her nose as she directed her attention to where Logan was, sitting on a stool behind the front desk, twiddling around on his phone with just about the _dumbest_ grin on his face. “Look at him.”

They both turned around to follow Louise’s line of sight. Tina turned back first, but Zeke, still facing him, helpfully supplied, “I like his shirt. Wonder where he got it…Should I ask ‘em?” This was directed at Tina, who opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by her sister.

“Ugh!” Louise groaned, leaning forward so her elbows were on her knees, putting her head in her hands. “It’s part of his uniform!”

“Still, he had to have gotten it from somewhere.”

Louise pulled on her pigtails, deciding conversation was futile. She looked up just in time to see Gene score a strike.

“Are you _serious_?” She tossed her head back.

“Absolutely, sister,” Gene strutted back to his seat, high-fiving an unwilling Louise on his way.

Louise shut her eyes, but was jerked awake by a voice.

“What is this? And who have you left to run the restaurant?”

She slowly lifted her head up and opened her eyes. It seemed like he had snuck up on them while she was distracted by Gene. Had finally gotten off his damn phone.

“Dad wasn’t feeling well so he closed it down for the day. Gave us the day off.”

“I see.” Logan leaned back against the rack of bowling balls behind him, crossing his legs. “And you decided to spend your day off here?”

A smile was inching its way slowly across his face, a smile Louise didn’t like.

“Don’t—don’t think of it like that. We’re not aiming to give you business. It was nearby and…convenient.”

“Right,” he nodded his head understandably, “No car,”

Louise crossed her legs on her seat and sat up straighter. She was much too proud to take his underlying verbal insult. Her family may not have had as much money as his to give each of them cars (even though it wasn’t really necessary), but it was a whole lot better than nothing.

He uncrossed his legs and made his way to the center console, drumming his fingers on it as he looked up at the TV screen announcing their scores.

“Oh, but it looks like you’re winning.” He glanced down at her momentarily with a smile that only held malice. She scowled back at him. He turned back to the screen. “Not for long, it looks like.”

“Mmmhm,”

Louise struggled not to look over at Gene beside her, whom she was sure was looking at her.

Logan gripped the edges of the console. “Well, if you kiddos—”

“We’re not kids.” Louise seethed.

“Yeah,” Zeke spoke up, “I’ve got my own restaurant openin’ up soon.” He seemed rather proud of this fact.

That had caught Logan off guard. Seemed like he didn’t know this. Louise wasn’t sure how, since he must have seen the sign every day, but then again she figured he never really bothered with Zeke’s name. That or he never really made the connection until now.

“Wait, really?” He eyed Zeke.

Louise answered for him. “Grand opening is in two weeks.” She pretended to not be that interested when his gaze swiveled to hers. “ _Not_ that you’re invited or anything.”

“Sure he is! Why wouldn’t he be? It’s open to the public, cool breeze.”

“ _Zeke_!”

Logan was still looking at her, that stupid smile back on his face. She rose from her seat, still fuming, and took her turn. It seemed her anger wasn’t doing her any good. She only knocked down three pins on the side. When she sat back down, she avoided looking at Logan altogether.

“ _Anyway_ , what I was saying was if you guys were look for anything to do, I could possibly offer you a free game of laser tag.”

Gene whipped around to look wide-eyed at Logan. He didn’t get to see that his ball rolled into the gutter. Louise smiled to herself, satisfied with this turn of events.

“I’d be on your team, though. Right?” He asked Logan.

Logan pulled back, unsure. “Uhh, yeah, I was actually thinking you guys could go up against a couple of buddies of mine and some co-workers. It’s been kind of a slow day, since it’s technically a weekday.”

“I don’t know, Logan, you wouldn’t just give us a free game, right? What’s the catch?” Louise stretched her legs out in front of her.

“It’s only free if you win.”

“There it is. Well,” Louise rose and made as if she were to leave, pausing by the bowling ball rack and turning back to Logan, who was looking a little disappointed that she appeared to be rejecting his offer. “That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?”

 

* * *

 

It was Louise, Zeke, Gene, and Tina against Logan, Scotty, and two co-workers of his. Louise couldn’t bother to remember their names. Shawn and something that started with a J.

Regardless, she figured it easy pickings. She’d win, get to rub it in Logan’s face, then leave, uncharged.

The vest was laughably large on her, and she started to voice as much out loud (“Have you ever thought to maybe—”) before Logan cut her off.

“Quiet, Louise, or you’ll miss these very important instructions.” He turned to face the TV monitor that ran through a set of instructions, using computer-animations to better display its point. Logan stood with his hands in front of him, like a soldier standing for the national anthem.

Louise withheld an insult that would only cause him to chastise her more.

When the animation had run through all the way, the lights on their vests lit up (Louise’s team was blue and Logan’s pink).

The assistant on duty opened the door for them and Logan gave him a particularly condescending smile that made Louise roll her eyes. It was too dark for him to see.

When the door shut behind them a voice over the speaker started counting down from thirty and they all spread out assuming positions, but before they could go, Louise pulled her team in for a huddle.

“I suggest manning one spot and hiding. Shoot anyone that comes by,” she advised.

“Yeah, right, sister,” Gene said, lifting his gun like he was James Bond, “I know who you are. You’re the enemy and I can _not_ lose.”

Louise sighed. “No, Gene, we’re on the same team. _Logan_ ’s the enemy. And everyone else in pink.”

He looked down at his vest and just seemed to notice the colors, but when he looked back up at Louise, he still looked skeptical.

Maybe they would lose after all.

“Just—nevermind.” Louise could lead them to victory on her own.

She sprinted to the second level all the way into the back behind a pile of blocks. There, she crouched and had time to consider a change in strategy, if the rest of her team wasn’t going to follow her lead.

When the countdown was over, techno music began playing over the speakers, signaling that the game had started. Strobe lights danced over the walls and props.

Slowly, she abandoned her original plan and crept behind each cube to try and spot a potential enemy. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of pink. Without thinking, she pivoted and shot to her left. The person scampered from behind their hiding spot and Louise chased him down.

It was that Shawn guy.

“Ha!” she yelled, victorious, once she managed to get him. Then, realizing her mistake, she shut her mouth and ran, ducking behind a cube before her victim could shoot her back.

She prayed at least Tina and Zeke knew what they were doing.

She crept along the wall of the ramp that brought her down to the first level. Immediately, she saw Zeke crouched nearby. She was impressed with his thinking skills. Getting a spot next to the ramp so he could shoot anyone who went upstairs or came down.

He didn’t seem to care that she had abandoned her own plan, merely nodding at her in acknowledgment. She hid behind a nearby cube.

“Who have you gotten so far?” she whispered to him.

He looked left to right to see that no one was around before responding. “Uh, Logan and that Jamie girl, so far.”

She smiled at Logan’s name. Even though she wanted to get him, she was glad Zeke had gotten one over on him. She nodded at Zeke before leaving her hiding spot, creeping out in the open now. Testing out a new strategy.

She heard the sound of a laser shooting near her. Both hands on her gun, she spun in slow circles, gun out in front of her. After having made a full rotation, she saw her attacker. Of course it was him.

 _Logan_.

But before she could make to chase him, he was running towards her. Not knowing how else to react, she ran to the right. She tried running backwards and shooting at him, but when that proved unsuccessful, she turned her back on him, glancing back to see where he was.

Unsurprisingly, she reached a wall.

“ _Fuck_ ,” she muttered, kicking the corner of the wall she was stuck in. She made to turn around, but he was already there.

Louise held her hands up in mock surrender, closing her eyes as she turned her head to the side. “Go ahead. End me. Just…please, make it painless.”

She heard him laugh and opened her eyes just barely. He had his arms at his sides and didn’t look like he was going to shoot her. Not yet, anyway.

He took one step forward and she took one back, hitting against the wall behind her.

“I’m not gonna shoot you, Louise.”

“Not yet,”

He frowned, nodding his head once. “Right. Well, I may have underestimated your team’s skill set.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Don’t mock my team,” she stood on her toes, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

He lifted one pale brow. “Oh, I’m not. I’m being honest.”

“What a surprising turn of events.” Louise lowered herself back to the ground.

“I’ll say,” He pushed up his sleeves before turning his eyes back to her. “Have you done this before?”

Louise scoffed. “What do you _mean_ have I done this before? You were there!” She pointed an accusatory finger at him.

Logan sighed like she had missed some grand concept, grasping her outstretched finger and lowering it. “I mean, besides that.”

“Oh, well,” she laughed slightly, tossing her gun in the air before catching it again, “I may have dabbled in laser tag when I was in middle school. Lowered a few kids’ self-esteem, put others in their place. Why, have you?”

He shrugged. “Not really. Mom didn’t really approve of anything that didn’t add to my ‘academic knowledge’ or somehow contribute to any ‘extracurricular that could get me into a good college.’” He shrugged again, like he was trying to prove something to himself. Prove it didn’t matter.

Louise felt betrayed by the ounce of sympathy she felt for him. Shoving it down, she rolled her eyes. “God, that Cynthia. I hate her.”

“One thing we can agree on, huh?” He tried a smile.

“I guess,” they were quiet for a few seconds. The techno music reached a point where one track was over and a hush fell over them, save for the sounds echoing from around them of the beeps signaling someone had been shot. Another track started up again.

“We can also agree on how much we hate each other.” She attempted in order to break the silence.

“Totally,”

“Anyways, that explains why you suck so bad.”

His smile was wiped from his face, replaced by a deep frown. “What does?”

“You’ve never really played before, newbie. That’s why you suck at it.” Her mouth twitched as she tried to repress a smile, pleased with how angry she was making him.

He took a step towards her, but she held her ground and crossed her arms. “I said ‘not really.’ I _have_ played a few games. I don’t suck.”

“Actually, you kinda do, Logan.”

“Yeah?”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Louise leaned closer to him, watching as his eyes flicked back and forth between hers.

“You know what really sucks?” he finally managed.

“Oh, what, Logan?”

He rocked back from her, mirroring her as he crossed his arms over his chest, a satisfied smile pasting itself on his face. “Your restaurant,”

Louise usually expected people to attack her family’s restaurant, and maybe he would have ten years ago, but she didn’t think Logan would go there. He had even told her he thought they had good burgers.

Flustered, she barely managed, “What? That doesn’t make any sense, Logan. You eat there literally every day.”

“Oh, I don’t think your burgers are bad.” He put an innocent hand to his heart. “But, judging by how the place always seems empty and your dad’s financial situation, I’d have to guess it’s a fact of the town.”

Louise reached forward and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him down towards her so they were face-to-face. His eyes widened and only strayed away from hers for a second before locking firmly, his eyebrows turned downwards.

“Don’t mock my family’s restaurant,”

He rolled his eyes and she pulled him down harder. He squeezed his eyes shut for a millisecond, no doubt straining his neck even more. “Look, I’m sorry. You’re right, that was uncalled for.”

Louise searched his eyes to see if he was lying. It was ridiculous, how she noticed that his eyes looked a darker shade of blue under the dark light, how she could make out a spray of freckles on his nose when a strobe light illuminated his face.

She concluded he was telling the truth, but before she could release him, a loud beep emitted from her vest.

He’d shot her without her knowing. She looked down at her chest to see the lights on it swirling, signaling she had been shot, then looked back up at Logan.

The bastard was grinning.

“You son of a bitch,” she muttered, as he pulled out of her grasp, easier now that she was distracted.

“Sorry, Four Ears,” he said, walking backwards away from her, “Number one rule of laser tag: don’t let your guard down.”

Her palms were sweaty as she clenched her hands into fists, suddenly feeling a shift in perspective. It felt like it was now her, ten years later, taking a sucker punch to the gut.

 

* * *

 

They were losing. Though there was no way to tell exactly _if_ they were, Logan assumed that, despite his blow to Louise, his team was still far behind. In fact, he was pretty sure his hit on Louise had only worked to make her more persistent in winning.

He knew this because every once and awhile, he’d run into a team member who would complain about her getting them.

“I’m telling you, man, you’ve gotta get her. You don’t want her to walk out of here uncharged, do you?”

“I _know_ , Scotty, just…just let me handle it.”

Not even a minute after he’d spoken those words he was hit square in the chest. He looked around for the source and spotted Louise crouching on top of one block. Another was in front of her, hiding her from view, her gun resting atop it like a sniper.

Before she could get another shot in, Logan ducked behind a nearby stack of cubes, his back pressed against them, gun to his chest.

“You know, Louise, you’re not allowed to be on those.” He called out to her. He could imagine her rolling her eyes at him.

“Like I care.”

He heard boots hit the ground. Logan inched along the other side of the stack of blocks, peeking around the corner. He couldn’t see her anywhere.

“What is this about, Louise? Did I hurt your feelings?” he mocked her, trying to lure her out of wherever she was hidden.

He received another shot to the back in response. He whipped around to see her standing atop the pile of blocks he was just hiding behind, a smug grin on her face.

He raised his gun, but she’d already jumped down, his aim landing nowhere.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that, Bush! I aim to win.” Her voice echoed around the wide room.

Logan stifled a groan of frustration. He had lost her.

 

* * *

 

As expected, her team had won. And, just as he’d thought, she wouldn’t be leaving without her own brag of victory.

Zeke, Tina, and Gene were waiting for her outside. The sky was already starting to pinken, the first sign of sunset. They’d actually played two games. Logan had declared a rematch when she’d owned his ass, and continued to lose again.

Louise had decided to stay behind, to get her money’s worth by mocking him. Or not money’s worth. She had paid for bowling, though, to be fair.

“So, _Logan_ , how does it feel to have lost at your own game?”

“Okay, I guess. I’m sure we’ll make up for your lost profits by the weekend.”

She frowned. “I’m not talking about the money.”

“Oh? Well, what _were_ you talking about then?”

“Your pride, your reputation,”

He smiled easily, leaning towards her from behind his desk. “Still perfectly intact,”

“Ugh,” she groaned, “You’re killing me here, Logan.”

He shrugged. “It’s for the betterment of society.”

She shook her head and turned her back on him, leaving to join the rest of her friends waiting outside.

Even though he’d technically lost, he couldn’t help but consider it a small victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if something about this chapter is weird. i haven't played laser tag in years lmao


	5. hurricane

“How do I know this isn’t some scam?”

“What—no, it’s not. Why would it be?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, it’s not, okay? Look, look at my name tag. It’s a real place. I promise.”

“Huh. Well, okay then.”

Logan called after the kid as he walked away, a skeptical look still on his face. “Tell your friends!”

As it turned out, Logan’s business wasn’t going as well as he made it out to Louise. He had been able to make up for the profits he had lost in the two laser tag games she had beat him at, but he wasn’t doing as well as he had anticipated. Granted, it was mostly due to the fact that school had started up again. He’d gotten lucky during the summer months, but now it was getting harder to attract enough customers.

Well, he was technically getting enough customers, but not to the extent that he would have liked.

Huh, he was becoming a bit of an over-achiever. Cynthia would have been ecstatic, were she not currently vacationing away in the Bahamas for all of eternity.

Logan had thought he’d be getting more customers over the weekends, but so far to no avail. So the weekend after the laser tag fiasco he set out to hand out flyers at the Wharf, hoping to attract bored kids with nothing better to do when off from school.

Scotty had argued with him that he would have been better suited to hand out flyers.

“You give off a pedophiliac look, bro. Not good for business.”

Logan had threatened to lower his pay if he didn’t let him do it.

It was a small town, so he expected to see a few familiar faces. But he hadn’t expected to see Louise and her family at the Wharf. Taking another day off yet again. Twice in a week. Maybe his business was going to do better than hers.

She’d traded her hoodie for a lighter blue jacket, unzipped, and her medium length hair was in two Dutch braids.

Before he could comment on the fact that she wasn’t at work, she answered his unspoken question for him.

“It’s my birthday. Special holiday for the Belchers.”

He nodded his head and raised his brows. “I see. And you’re spending it,” he looked behind him, where two kids were trying to peel gum off the nearby wall that enclosed the park, “here?” He looked back at her.

Louise bunched her mouth into a frown, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. “It’s a tradition.”

She made as if to walk past him, but he reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her while the rest of her family split off.

She looked back at him, annoyed. “ _What_?”

He hadn’t really thought that part through and had reached out to continue talking to her on some instinct. Which was…weird.

He released his hold on her arm to grab a bright yellow flyer from the stack he was holding. He held it out to her, a mischievous grin on his face.

Louise shifted around to fully face him now and ripped the paper from his hands. She continued to look him straight in the eyes as she ripped the flyer into shreds, letting them gather in the wind and float to the ground.

Logan scoffed. “ _Littering_ is a federal offense.”

“Seems more like a _Logan_ offense to me. Don’t be so offended.” She proceeded to turn her back on him and walked away.

He looked to his left and right and saw Shawn handing out his own stack of papers. He ran to him and told him to hand out the rest of his stack. Shawn complied without complaint.

At least someone knew how to treat their boss.

Jogging, he caught back up with Louise.

She didn’t even look at him when she rolled her eyes and asked, “What do you want now?”

“Soo, it’s your birthday?” He shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Never thought to tell me that?”

“It’s not really something I tell people.” She glanced up at him, looking him over. “Least of all you,”

It was Logan’s turn to roll his eyes now. He wasn’t sure where they were headed until Louise brought them to the line for the Ferris Wheel. She leaned against the bar railing and he leaned on it next to her.

“How old are you turning?”

“Twenty,”

Logan remembered his twentieth birthday party. His birthday was in July so he didn’t have school, but his Mom had forced him to come home for the summer.

He’d had the flu.

He jumped up to sit on top of the railing, his feet resting on the lower rail. “Can I ask something?”

“I have a feeling you will anyway.”

“Why the Ferris Wheel?”

She furrowed her brows when she glanced up at him. “What do you mean?”

He sighed dramatically, looking upwards to the heavens. Irritated, she punched him in the knee, almost making him fall off his seat and crack his head open.

“Why are we in line for the Ferris Wheel?”

“Oh,” she looked away, “I guess it’s also another tradition. I used to ride with Tina and Gene every year. Then we all got too big, so it was just Tina and me. Now, though, I prefer to ride _alone_.” The last part was directed at him.

“So, me being here annoys you?”

“You being anywhere near me annoys me. The very thought of you annoys me.”

“Well, I’m just glad I’m not wasting my time.”

She punched him again.

 

* * *

 

It was half past two when they finally boarded. Louise was sure to sit as far away from him as she could, sliding all the way down to the end of the seat.

On the first go around, they didn’t speak to each other once, on the second, he nudged her arm.

“ _Hey!_ Now that I think about it, I think this is the exact cart I threw up on when I was six!”

She turned to glare at him. “Liar,”

He crossed his heart. “Honest.”

She snorted as she turned her gaze back on the ocean spreading out to her left. “I’m not stupid, Logan—”

“I beg to differ—”

“I know you’re just trying to get a rise out of me.”

“Is it working?” He was smiling now.

Louise felt her face start to burn. “ _No_ ,”

“Liar,” he gave her a crocodile smile.

On the fourth go around, Louise’s worst nightmare came true. They had just reached the top when the ride came to a shuttering halt. Her stomach dropped as she traded confused glances with Logan, before leaning forward to see what was going on.

Logan instinctively reached a hand out to her chest. “Easy, or you’ll tilt this entire cart forward.”

“How much do you think I weigh?” She continued frantically looking around, only to see worried faces staring up at her from the line down below. Though they looked more concerned with the fact they may not get their turn.

“ _Hey_!” she screamed, leaning past Logan to yell at the operator. He quickly moved back against the seat to make room for her. “Can we get this thing moving or what?”

The man held up his index finger and then ran off to get someone. Louise let out a groan of frustration as she threw herself back against the seat.

“We’re stuck.”

“That much is clear.” Logan folded his hands in his lap as Louise narrowed her eyes at him.

“Did you have anything to do with this?”

He looked frantically at her, then to the crowd gathering below, then back to her. “What? No! I wouldn’t risk _myself_ to annoy you.”

Louise slumped in her seat, kicking the side of their cart. Several minutes went by in silence before anyone showed up.

“Ahem, is this thing working?”

Louise sat up quickly, then proceeded to throw herself back in front of Logan, who let out a cry of surprise. Her hands gripped the side of the cart.

“That son of a bitch.” She breathed. Standing at the front of the line was none other than Calvin Fischoeder, holding a megaphone.

“What?” Logan asked, his nose scrunched up in annoyance at their current position. He followed her gaze and his eyes widened.

“Holy shit. That guy’s still alive?”

Louise looked curiously up at him. “You know him?”

“Who _doesn’t_ know Fischoeder. You know he’s still your landlord, right? Mine, too.” He scrunched his mouth to the side as he continued looking at the old man. “Used to yell at me and my buddies when he’d catch us skateboarding here after hours, too.”

Louise didn’t find that hard to believe. She turned her attention back to Mr. Fischoeder.

“As you may have realized, we’ve seemed to have encountered a, uh, minor difficulty. Until we figure this out, the Ferris Wheel will now be closed.”

“What about us, Fischoeder!?” Louise yelled, making Logan jump.

The old man focused his attention on her now. “Ah, well, yes, you will just have to wait until we figure this out, like I said, little girl.” As if as an afterthought, he added, “I’ll be sure to inform your hairy father of where you are.”

She groaned as she sat back in her seat, her arms crossed.

Logan shifted in his seat, drumming his fingers against the side of the carrier. “We might be stuck up here for a while.”

“Look, Logan,” Louise rolled her head to stare at him, “if that’s true, we’re going to have to keep conversation to a minimum in order to avoid insanity, got it? Only use it in case of emergencies.”

He frowned before tearing his gaze away from hers.

Louise got a solid ten minutes of silence before he just _had_ to say something.

He let out a soft chuckle. “You know—”

“Bush! What did I say—”

“I actually had my first kiss on this thing.”

“ _Sick_! I don’t want to hear about your disgusting love life.” She didn’t know why she was purposely avoiding his gaze, sliding further down in her seat.

He maneuvered on his seat to fully face her. “Oh, you don’t?” One brow inched its way up on his forehead.

“No,”

He ignored her. “Her name was Melissa Charles. One of, if not _the_ , prettiest girls in our grade.” He sighed dreamily. “She was actually my prom date. _Hey_ , you remember that, don’t you?”

“No,”

“I know you do. You remember more about me than you let on.”

He let the comment sit between them for a solid minute before clearing his throat and continuing. “I, uh—she agreed to go with me because of the ears.”

Louise felt her mouth quirk at one end. “She probably felt bad for you.”

“Well, that kiss begs to differ.”

“Really?” she turned to face him now. “And did she continue dating you after that?”

His eyes darted downwards, then to the left, meeting anything but her. “Yes.”

Louise smacked her hand on the back of the seat. “See?”

“Whatever,” Logan slumped against his seat. A breeze blew by, ruffling the ends of his short hair. Louise shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Who was your first kiss?”

She shrugged. “Never really had one of those.”

His old spirit was back, rebounding from the blow she had given him. “C’mon, I know you have.”

She sighed loudly, throwing her head back and staring at the sky. “Fine. I did…kind of.”

“Well,” the cart creaked as he shifted his weight on it. “Who was it?”

Louise squeezed her eyes shut. “It was Rudy.”

He was silent for a few seconds. She still had her eyes closed so she couldn’t judge why that would be.

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

She turned her head on its side to glare at him. “He was my friend. Kind of my only friend by the time Gene left high school. He was my first and only kiss.”

Logan knit his brows together. “What do you mean?”

“Ugh, do I have to spell all of this out for you?”

He held up both hands in mock surrender, pulling back and facing forward again. “No pressure.”

Louise continued anyhow. If she was the one doing the talking, it was fine by her. “In our sophomore year, everyone in our grade started dating each other and it got confusing and weird and disgusting. So, Rudy and I made a pact that if we ‘dated’ each other for the remainder of high school, that wouldn’t happen to us.”

“And did it?”

“No, it was fine. We were still friends, but we’d go to some formal dances together just to prove that we were still dating. He kissed me afterschool one day and I told him that was only necessary when we were in front of people.”

“Ooh, harsh.”

Louise scrunched her face into a considering frown. She’d never really viewed it like that. Looking back on it now, the whole situation was kind of unfair. She may not have wanted to date anyone, but what about Rudy? But would he have even agreed to it if he truly wanted to?

“So, how’d it end?” Logan ventured, pulling her back into reality.

“We just kind of…ended it at graduation. I think he’s dating some girl from college now.”

Louise loosened uneasily. “Screw you, Logan. Now you’ve got me thinking about that.”

“Oh ho ho, do you feel _bad_ , Louise?” He faced forward and began, as if addressing a studio audience. “Well, folks, it looks like we’ve reached a breakthrough. Tune in next time when we bring back someone from Louise’s past. Just how will she work this out?”

She punched him in the arm. Hard.

“Ow!” he yelled, clutching his arm. Louise faced forward, her hands stuffed deep in her jacket pockets, frowning as she tried to think of something else.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Logan looking at her, concerned, before piping up, “If it makes you feel any better I broke up with my first girlfriend in college by having my friend try to seduce her. I thought that if she cheated on me it would be a better reason to break up with her then just telling her I thought we should see other people. When _that_ didn’t work, I had that same friend break up with her for me.”

Louise shook her head. “You’re a terrible person, Logan.”

“So are you.”

“Not the point.”

Louise slipped out her phone to text her Mom to leave her dinner to heat up when she got home. She had a feeling she wouldn’t be home for a while.

“You—” Logan started.

“Hey,”

“Yeah?”

“Can we go back to my original rule? The whole no-talking thing?”

He sighed. “Whatever, Louise.”

 

* * *

 

When he woke up sometime later, she had her arms wrapped vise-like around one of his. He tried pulling away, but she was surprisingly strong.

Logan sighed, throwing his head back. The sky was darkening and his stomach rumbled.

He heard a sound come from his left. Louise was beginning to mumble something in her sleep and her heart was racing against his arm.

He opened his mouth to try and wake her up, but stopped when she muttered, “ _Logan_ ,”

He raised a brow at her, curious to see where this was going and what she was dreaming of.

“ _I’m gonna fucking kill you, Logan._ ”

“Alright, that’s enough.” He shoved her gently away from him and her eyes flashed open.

“What happened? Am I home?” She looked around frantically.

“No,” he leaned his elbow against the side of the cart, running a hand through his hair as Louise scooted away from him.

“Wait, was I just—was I _hugging_ you?”

“Technically, you were hugging my arm, but yes.”

“ _Disgusting_! God, why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” she appeared to be rubbing germs from her arms.

“Because I just woke up, too.”

Before Louise could say what he was sure was a highly offensive comment aimed to lower his self-esteem, their cart jerked forward. He heard cheers echo from the other carts around them.

Louise joined in, pumping both fists in the air, a stupidly happy grin on her face.

“Now I can finally get away from you!” she reached over and punched him the arm—lighter than she usually did.

They ended up walking back together anyhow.

When they reached her house, she slowed to a stop at her front door, her eyes still ahead.

“So, uh, where is it you live, anyway?”

The question took him my surprise, but he pointed to the apartment above his place, which was admittedly larger and longer than any of the surrounding stores.

Louise nodded her head, then told him something that surprised him even more. Not because it was unexpected in any way, just that he wouldn’t have thought she would bring it up now.

“I’ve been thinking of getting my own place.”

“Really? Don’t want to live with your parents forever? Are you sure?”

She exhaled in annoyance.

“You know, I, um, lived with my parents my first year after college.”

“What a nightmare.”

“You can move in with me, you know. Rent is ridiculous and it’d always be helpful if we could split.”

“I don’t get paid. All the money would be coming from my parents.”

Logan shrugged. “Just a suggestion. You could always ask for a raise or…a paycheck.”

She snorted, before finally turning to face him. “I’ll think it over.” She opened her front door and disappeared inside.


	6. mess around

Louise _never_ ran. She was typically good at getting out of it, particularly for gym class. Sometimes, she’d forge a teacher’s note (she got particularly good at this in high school), telling her coach she’d have to make up a test during P.E., but really she’d bounce little balls she’d gotten early from the local pizza shop off the school’s brick walls. Occasionally, she’d have Rudy come along with her, but he almost always denied her request. He was never one for getting in trouble and taking chances. Even though he had the best possible excuse ever for getting out of gym class.

She’d only ever been caught once and she prided herself on this.

But ever since, she’d avoided running if she could help it. If she needed to get somewhere quickly, she’d _storm_. It was easier, more effective, and offered her to let her anger through.

Which is what she did when Mike the mailman handed over the flyer that morning to her ecstatic father. Louise felt a little differently.

People on the sidewalk moved quickly out of her way as she charged to Logan’s place, the flyer already crumpling in her grasp. She practically kicked open his front door, a bell chiming to announce her arrival. That was new.

Judging from the smirk on his face, he _knew_. And to think, she was considering moving in with him not even a week before. Always when she thought he was fine, he’d do something to ruin whatever it was they had built up.

She slammed the flyer down on the counter in front of him, leaning towards him on her toes.

“ _What is this_?” she demanded.

“Well, it looks to me to be a very well designed flyer. Though they could work on their font use—did I tell you I took a class on this—”

“You know what I mean, Logan!”

He cringed away from her. “Alright, alright. Yes, I entered my place into the burger cook-off, but _I’m_ not the one who’ll be cooking!”

Louise lowered herself back onto the heels of her feet. “Why? Why’d you sign up?”

“Because I wanted to beat you?”

“Don’t sound too sure about that.”

“Fine,” he ran a finger along the edge of the counter, not daring to meet her eyes, for good reason. “I know our burgers suck and I wanted you to have a better shot at winning. I know how Bob gets over these things and he’s a good guy and I just wanted to give him this.” Something changed in his expression and he leaned forward, looking her pointedly in the eyes now. “But not you. This has _nothing_ to do with you. Just your dad.”

She ripped the flyer from the counter and crumpled it up in her fist. “Somehow that’s worse than doing it just to spite me. We don’t _need_ your help winning. Us Belchers are perfectly good at doing that on our own.” She held her shoulders back.

“Really? Okay, well then, why don’t I make this a real competition? We’ll spice up our burgers. Make them have a winning shot.”

“Fine.” She threw the crumpled ball of paper at his head. He snatched it from where it had bounced off his head and landed on the front desk. “But good luck with that.”

A smile jerked its way onto her mouth. “That’s not all I came for.”

“What else, then?”

“We may as well start the competition today. Tell you what: starting now, we keep score for how much money we make. Tally it all together at the end of the day.”

He knit his eyebrows together. “Why?”

“Like I told you, I aim to win.”

“Wait—is this counting food sales or all the sales I make today?”

“Food. You’re bowling is overpriced, anyway. Don’t want to upset the scores.” With him caught off guard, she grabbed the paper ball out of his hand and stuffed it in her hoodie pocket, humming as she left.

 

* * *

 

Louise couldn’t ignore the fact that her mother was actually _glaring_ at her when she got back to the restaurant.

“Louise, sweetie, come here. I want to talk to you about something.”

She reluctantly trudged over to the counter and sat at one of the bar stools. She really had stuff to be doing and organizing if she planned to win this thing. Logan’s food sucked, but people bought it anyway. When you’re bowling or playing at an arcade and you’re hungry, you’ll eat practically anything.

“What is it, Mom?”

“I’ve just noticed you’ve been hanging around with Cynthia’s kid, Logan. And I know how he is—”

“Mom, really it’s fine. Logan and I are both adults we’re not kids anymore.”

“I’m just saying, he takes after his mother, that one.”

“Ugh, no he doesn’t. Well—I don’t know. Besides, it’s not like we’re _friends_ or anything. At least, I don’t think we are. We’re just friendly competitors. And he’s not like Cynthia. He’s okay, I guess—I mean, he’s no _Cynthia_. Look, I don’t know.” Linda gave her a smile that told her she did know, but didn’t comment on it. “Mom, just know I’m fine, okay?”

“Okay, but I’m just a little worried about you, that’s all. Didn’t he take your ears from you once?”

“That was ten years ago!”

“She’s right.” Gene came from the kitchen, slurping a soda and seating himself at the far end of the counter. “I mean, look at my hair ten years ago! People _change_ , Mom!”

“You have the same exact hair.” Louise dead-panned.

At the same time, Linda chirped, “Aw, you’re so right, Gene! My baby’s so wise.”

Louise groaned as she spun herself around and hopped down. “Gene, I need you on advertising. We’ve got to attract more customers. I’m in a competition I can’t lose.”

Gene held up a hand. “Say no more, sister. I’ve been waiting _years_ to be called back to this role.”

“Didn’t you say you were too famous for this place?” Bob piped up from the kitchen.

“Psh. Haters.”

“Dad!” Louise darted into the kitchen where Bob was intensely focused on grilling burgers. “Where can I find Zeke?”

“He’s hiring people for his new restaurant. Why?”

“Dad! Didn’t you see he’s competing against you at the cook-off? How is that possible when his place hasn’t even opened yet?”

Bob shrugged. “I helped him. It’s good for his business. Besides, Louise, I’m the man who made him into the man he is today. Or, well, I trained him. So good luck beating that.” He flipped a burger. “We’ve got this in the bag.”

Louise sighed, deciding not to interrogate Zeke like she had Logan. When she walked back out to the dining area, Tina entered the restaurant. “ _Tiiiina_! I have an important task for you!”

“What is it?”

Louise explained the deal she had made with Logan to Tina. “I need you to stay at Logan’s today and make sure he doesn’t add any extra cash to his earnings.”

“Won’t taking a worker away cause us to lose business?”

“Tina, Tina, _Tina_.” Louise shook her head. “The restaurant will be fine without you. Dad’s so focused on practicing for the cook-off, he could do all our worth of cooking.”

“Which isn’t much!” Bob called from the kitchen, but Louise ignored him.

Tina started to say something, but Louise interrupted her. “Trust me, this will work.”

 

* * *

 

It didn’t. It didn’t work and Louise was _so_ sure it would. Gene’s outside street performances, for one thing, were much better now that he had better equipment and better band members. And a better songwriter. Bob had worked harder than he had ever worked in his entire life on those burgers, too.

And Tina, she was sure, had done an equally good job at keeping Logan in line, judging by how he complained when he came by the restaurant for the final round-up.

“Louise, did you _really_ have to send your creepy sister to spy on me? You don’t trust me enough?”

Tina came running through the door after him. “He almost did it, but I stopped him.”

“Thanks, T.” Louise said as she stood on a bar stool on her knees next to Logan. He spread his cash out on the counter and Gene got theirs out from where they were keeping it separate behind the counter.

That was when Louise first began to get nervous. His stack looked a whole lot thicker than theirs.

But looks weren’t everything, right?

Except, in this case, they were. He won by twenty dollars. Gene called sabotage, but no one was really listening, and Logan made to grin at her, but Louise left the restaurant before he could in shame.

It was nearly completely dark outside and the bright light from the restaurant flooded out onto the sidewalk. It was too late to be around these parts, and even if they were, most people had found their way into some store or restaurant by now. Or were down by the pier.

Louise sat on the sidewalk with her back against the wide window at the front of the diner. She crossed her legs and put her head in her hands. She didn’t cry, because that wasn’t really her thing, but she scrunched her face up and curled her fingers in her hair.

She heard the bell to the restaurant jingle and whipped her head up to see who was coming out. She expected it to be just another customer leaving, but instead was shocked to see it was Logan.

“What do you want, Logan? Coming out here to gloat?”

He ignored her and instead took a seat next to her .

“You know I never got a master’s degree, right?”

Louise scoffed, an automatic reaction whenever he tried to bring up his college career. Besides, did he want her to turn her sympathies towards him instead?

“Oh, wow. Who do you think you’re talking to, Logan? I never even graduated from college. I couldn’t last two years.”

He gave her an impatient sigh that she had grown accustomed to in the last few weeks, unfortunately or not. “Well, my dad would have preferred me to, if you know what I mean. He actually stopped talking to me awhile after I told him I was only going for a bachelors.” He rolled his head to look directly at her. Louise hated the way the fluorescent light coming from the restaurant behind him drew her attention to the freckles that spread from his nose to his cheeks and the chips of brown near the center of his eyes.

She tugged the sleeves of her hoodie over her hands. She was being ridiculous. “Your point?”

“My point is, you didn’t lose here today. And I certainly didn’t win.”

“Okay, Siddhartha, care to elaborate?” she raised her brows and when she expected him to sigh again, he smiled.

“You took a religions class in—”

“Yeah, I did. Now, back to that fascinating piece of Enlightenment you were sharing earlier?” She propped her elbow on her knee and rested her chin on her fist.

“What I was saying was, I may have more education than you and my business may make more money than yours—”

“Just lay it on thick, Bush—”

“But you have a _family_ , Louise.”

She jerked back, frowning. “So do you, Logan.”

He looked away, shaking his head. “No, a family that _loves_ you. I mean, my father barely speaks to me because I refuse to go to medical school or _at least_ pursue a masters degree. My mom forced them both off to the Bahamas the minute I was done with college. Louise, I was an _accident_. They hate me.”

Louise was getting frustrated, and when she was frustrated, only then did she start to cry. Her eyes burned when she crossed her arms firmly over her chest as a chill breezed pass them. “If you wanted me to feel bad for you—”

“I just want to put something into perspective. All throughout today, I sat alone at that counter. I didn’t have any friends or family to really help me out. But you helped your brother advertise and I know you enjoyed—”

“How’d you know about that?”

Logan tilted his head side to side. “I _may_ have also sent someone over to spy—but that’s what I’m saying! I hardly remember that guy’s name. But you got to send your sister over to help. And, weird as she is, you like working with your family, don’t you?”

Louise bit her lip as she nodded grudgingly.

“ _That’s_ my point. I may have made more money than you today, but was it worth it?”

“Alright, Gandhi, but that doesn’t change the fact that you make more money than me.” She hugged her knees to her chest.

Logan threw his head back. “You’re so difficult to talk to, you know?”

“So I’ve been told.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “You ever wonder how it is I make so much money?”

“ _Yes_. Well, it’s more in the ‘how does this asshole rack in so much bank when he’s got a face like that’ kind of way.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he still wouldn’t open his eyes, his head still resting against the window behind him. “I learned all my techniques in school. I mean, your college isn’t any _Princeton_ —”

“Uncalled for.”

“That’s valid. But, Louise, just…just go to school. I know you think you don’t need to, but—”

When she spoke it was quieter. “It’s expensive.”

Now he looked at her, a curious frown on his face.

“I know that’s hard for you to understand, but it costs my dad a lot to pay for my classes. And my room and books. Cynthia obviously paid for everything for you, but I didn’t want to go to college because I knew how much it’d cost my dad.”

Logan looked behind him in the restaurant to her father, then back to her. “Does he want you to?”

“Yes,”

“Then do it. He wouldn’t offer it if he didn’t want you to take it.”

Louise crunched her shoes into the dirt under her feet. “Mr. Frond would be so jealous right now.”

She felt reassured by the grin Logan gave her in return. “Sometimes I miss that guy. Hated him when I was younger, though.”

“What did he want to talk with you about? Cynthia’s drinking issue? How your parents don’t love you?”

“Somewhere along those lines. I used to, uh, skateboard along school property and vandalize the building. He blamed it on my parents always fighting and my privileged upbringing. Said I didn’t know how to associate myself with the right people because of that.”

“Aw, baby Bush was a baddie.” Louise reached up to pinch his cheek, but he slapped her hand away and somewhere along the way, their eyes locked.

“You’re a lot of fun, you know that, right? Well, when you’re not too busy being the Worst Person Ever.” He broke their gaze first, but Louise continued trying to meet his eyes.

“You like hanging out with me? _Gross_! What are we? Friends?”

“Whatever,” He bumped her with his knee and she bumped him back, only harder. He had to hold out a hand to stop himself from falling sideways onto the pavement.

Logan brushed his hands off on his pants while he rose. He extended a hand out to Louise, who wrapped her hands around his forearm and forcibly tried to pull him back down.

“God, Louise, you’re gonna rip my arm right out of its socket.” Once he managed to steady himself, he decided never to offer her his help in standing up again. “How is it you’re so strong?”

Louise shrugged as she stood up. “Good genes… that Gene didn’t get.”

“Anyway,” he shoved his hands into his pockets as he faced her, “See you this weekend? At the opening?”

“I thought I told you you weren’t invited?”

“Goodnight, Louise.”

“You’re food is overpriced anyways! That’s why you won!” She shouted at his back. He waved a hand over his head to show that he had heard, but was not thoroughly pleased with the comment.

She watched his silhouette walk away and unlock his house door before heading back into the restaurant.

“You feeling any better, baby?” Linda asked, wiping down the counter.

“Much. Have you seen Dad?”

“He’s up in the living room, watchin’ one of his late-night Westerns. You know how he is.”

Louise darted out and into their house. Her Dad was just like Linda had said, sprawled out on the couch with a kind of grin on his face that only ever made an appearance when he was reunited with his favorite Western movies. A bowl of popcorn lay on his belly.

She took the bowl of popcorn from him and explained everything. He was a lot happier about it than she had thought he would be. He helped her write the email to the Director of Admissions. Once that was done, she finally retired to her room and felt a lot better than she had earlier.

She was going back to school.


	7. d is for dangerous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're almost finished now! only two chapters left to go
> 
> since we're reaching the end of the story, i thought i'd share with you guys a playlist i made. it includes all songs mentioned in the chapter titles and you can find it [here](https://play.spotify.com/user/drinkinglightning/playlist/7fePOquBMUjSKVVVycgjD2) if you're interested:)

Louise was two seconds away from losing it completely, because, for whatever reason, _Tammy_ had to stop by this weekend.

“She’s here for the opening of Zeke’s restaurant, Louise.” Tina had told her calmly earlier that day.

“ _Tina_ , how can you not see that she’s actually here to destroy you?”

“Why do you say that?”

Louise had scoffed. “It’s _Tammy Larsen_ we’re talking about here, Tina.”

“You always expect the worst of people. She’s changed.”

“But I’m _right_ on this!”

Louise didn’t really know what Tammy did now. Whether she stayed at home or if she took classes at the local community college. She didn’t know much about Tammy except that she wanted to know all about what was going on with Tina. Because that’s all they talked about.

“I _swear_ I ran into Jimmy the other day.”

“I don’t think so, Tammy. He’s in Ohio.”

“Ugh, don’t be such a boob punch, Tina.” She leaned forward across the table conspiratorially, her ponytail falling over one shoulder. “But, what about Zeke? Is he hotter? Taller? _God_ , I hope he’s gotten taller.”

Louise tried to ignore them, but since she was manning the front counter and business was slow like usual, there wasn’t really much else to focus on. She leaned against the wall, her arms crossed and her nails digging into her arms. She clenched her teeth to keep from saying anything.

Luckily, her dad came in to save her. Kind of.

“Hey, Tina, make sure you’re clearing those tables.” Bob said through the window.

“There’s no tables left to clear, Dad.”

“Well, just…get back to work. Oh, and Louise, can you come back here for a minute?”

She didn’t even contemplate whether this was a good thing or bad thing. Instead, she jumped at the opportunity to be elsewhere than in the same room as Tammy.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you something.”

Louise leaned against the sink. “Sure thing, Dad. Shoot.”

Bob looked down at the spatula in his hands. “Technically, I’m allowed to have one partner at the cook-off…” He trailed off.

Louise beat him to the punch as she tried to withhold a smile from making an appearance. “And you want…me?”

“Yeah,” Bob exhaled, seemingly relieved he didn’t have to finish his request for her.

She fought down the urge to laugh and hug him, because she had a reputation to maintain.

She allowed one small smile. “Sure, Dad.”

Her dad raised his eyes to hers. “Really? That’s it?”

“Really.” Louise let her smile widen. But only a little bit.

 

* * *

 

 The grand opening technically didn’t start until five. The restaurant was already open all day, but the entertainment didn’t kick off until later.

It was around half past four when Louise got a text.

**555-4213:** what time are you heading over at?

**louise:** who is this?

**555-4213:** sorry. it’s logan.

Louise, reluctantly, added him to her contact list. She added the devil emoji next to his name.

**logan:** anyway, what time are you going to the grand opening at?

**louise:** how’d you get my number?

**logan:** gene gave it to me

**louise:** gross. wait, are you already over there?

**logan:** ….yes

**louise:** loser.

He stopped texting after that, since he probably figured that was all he was going to get out of her.

It was four fifty-five when they closed down the restaurant and everyone but Louise headed over as a group.

“I’ll meet you guys there. Nothing’s happening right now anyway.”

“Are you sure, Louise?” Bob hovered in her room’s doorway.

“For sure,”

She changed out of her hoodie and into a brown sweater, one of Tina’s hand-me-downs. She traded her regular blue jeans for a pair of black jeans.

By the time she had locked the house door behind her and went across the street, it was already a quarter past five. Gene’s band could be heard from outside and a few more people were starting to park along the street and make their way inside.

Louise hadn’t been inside that place for what felt like ages. Really, the last time was probably in middle school. Maybe, if that. Bob never really allowed any of them to venture across the street.

It was a little like she had remembered. Except, where all Italian flags and other of the Pesto’s memorabilia once was had now been replaced by football jerseys and framed photos of football stadiums.

As she made her way inside, she saw Logan seated at the bar. She tried to ignore him, but her only other seating option looked to be a window seat with her parents or at the bar with Tina and Tammy.

“Louise!” Logan called out across the restaurant and she sluggishly crossed the room to him.

“Here,” he said, gesturing to the stool next to him, “I’ll buy you a drink.”

“ _Logan_ , you know I’m twenty.”

“Yeah, but _I’m_ buying.”

“That’s not—I’ll just have a water.” she told the bartender who came to take her order. “Oh, and some fries.”

Logan angled himself towards her. “No burger?”

Louise stuck her tongue out at him, directing her attention to Gene and his band. They had just started up what Louise knew was an original song written by Gene himself. She knew because he had had her proof read through it for him and made her sit through numerous performances of it.

It was loud and upbeat and made it hard to hear the games being shown on the various TV screens, but it was, surprisingly, a good song, and better than most he had written in the past.

“Baby Belcher!” Zeke leaned forward on the counter, a towel draped over one of his shoulders.

“Hey, Zeke.”

“So, whaddya’ think?”

The bartender came back around and set Louise’s drink in front of her. She took a sip of the chilly water. “It’s nice. Gotta give it to you, you turned this crap shack into something that can be appreciated.”

Zeke stepped back and gestured to something pinned to the bulletin board. A ten dollar bill. “First order made! Ya boyfriend was our first customer!”

Louise’s eyes flickered once to Logan before shaking her head. “Zeke, he’s not my—wait, what did you order? How early did you get here, exactly?”

Logan shrugged. “Before my shift I came by and bought a water. I’ve always wanted to be a famous first customer.”

“Ooh! We should get a picture of ya. Put it next to the money.”

“Yeah!” Louise hit Logan on the arm. “We could take one tonight. Maybe after you’ve had a few drinks.”

He frowned at her before taking a sip of his beer.

The song ended and Gene announced that he would be taking a break (“Don’t miss me _too_ much, though!”) Louise watched curiously as he took a seat at the bar and that bartender from before tried hopelessly to flirt with Gene. Unfortunately enough, Gene wasn’t taking his hint.

Zeke made his way over to Tina and Tammy. Louise spit water back down her straw when Tina bravely leaned over the counter and gave Zeke a kiss on the cheek. When Zeke walked off to talk to the other customers, Tammy repeatedly hit Tina’s arm and screamed her name.

Louise was going to be sick.

“Hey, where are you going?” Logan asked concernedly when she jumped down from her stool.

“Need to use the bathroom.”

Once she had washed her face off and made her way back out again, Gene was taking to the stand again.

“Now, I’d like to try my hand at a classic. You’ll recognize it. _Hopefully_.” Gene backed away to his keyboard and the song began.

Louise only recognized it because she had heard him practicing it upstairs for weeks now, but she saw her mom turn excitedly to her dad and tug on his arm, pulling him to the area in front of the stage for dancing.

Louise groaned as she slid back into her seat and threw her head down on the counter.

“What?” Logan said. She could only imagine the look of questionable irritation on his face.

She lifted her head only to proper it on her hand. “My food isn’t out yet.”

He looked like he didn’t believe that was the cause of her mood. His eyes wandered past her to where Linda was still trying to pull Bob up to dance, to no avail.

“Oh, I see.”

Just then the bartender placed her basket of fries in front of her, apologizing for the wait. Louise immediately perked up and started chewing on a fry.

“Hey, I know. Why don’t we go dance?”

Louise literally _choked_ on a fry. She had to reach frantically for her glass of water to ease it down her throat. Once she finished swallowing, she turned back to Logan, wide eyed.

“Are you serious? No _way_.”

“What? Never danced with someone before?”

“Of course I have, but that’s not the point.”

“Why won’t you dance with me then?”

“You’re disgusting.” Disinterested, she turned away and started eating again. He wasn’t being serious and she knew that. She also knew a small part of her wanted to dance with him. She knew to ignore this part of her.

“Are you _bad_ at dancing, Louise?”

“Psh. No.” She scoffed.

“Really? Well, I’m just gonna assume you’re bad at it unless…”

Louise spun back around to face him. “Is this some kind of challenge?”

He merely shrugged. Louise bit her lip as she considered his offer. Not one for turning down a challenge and a chance to prove her worth, she threw the fry she was holding back into the basket and grabbed his wrist, pulling him out onto the dance floor. She could practically _feel_ him smiling behind her.

When they had managed to find a spot, she made to put both her hands on his shoulders, but he _tsked_ and placed one of her hands in his, leaving the other resting on his shoulder. He put his free hand on her hip and Louise bit the inside of her cheek.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Very nice.”

“ _Thank you_ ,”

“You must be very proud.” She paused. “Cynthia made you take formal dance classes, didn’t she?”

“You get me, Belcher.”

In response, Louise ‘accidentally’ stepped on one of his feet and he grimaced in pain, forcing a smile on his face when he looked back down at her.

“ _So_ ,” she said, ignoring his look of pain, “what other classes did she have you take?”

“I’ll have you know that every girl I’ve taken to dances has very much appreciated my well-taught skills.”

“I’m sure that’s very true, Logan, but grandmas don’t count.” She shoved him lightly against the shoulder. “Stop avoiding the question.”

He looked at her feet and mumbled something Louise didn’t quite catch.

She bent down to look into his face. “Sorry, didn’t quite catch that.”

“ _Crocheting_. She had me take crocheting classes.” He lifted his head.

“How much did the girls appreciate that?”

He smirked sarcastically at her. “Very much. I’m now happily married with kids thanks to that damn class.”

“I’m _sure_.” They maneuvered around the floor in silence for several seconds before Louise spoke again. “Hey, why aren’t you married?”

“What?”

“I mean, I know that you’re _you_ and all, but don’t women like ugly things like you? You’re like forty, anyway. Time to settle.”

Logan looked up and laughed, avoiding her gaze. “Yeah, I guess. I’m more of a career man, though.”

“ _Revolutionary_ ,”

“What can I say? I’m breaking stereotypes.”

He still wasn’t looking at her, his eyes wandering the room around them instead.

What she had said earlier came back to her.

_Why aren’t you married?_

She had to guess it was because Logan was more of an acquired taste. If you liked him to begin with, in some way, he’d inevitably betray you. Like try to get his friend to sleep with you.

But he had the tendency to come off the wrong way. Like with Louise. But she did _have_ to admit that though he drove her crazy, he was easy to talk to. And maybe _kind of_ fun to be around. He’d surprised her.

At the same time that her heart began to soar, her stomach sank, because this was unchartered territory. She shouldn’t have let her thoughts wander that far because—because she _couldn’t._ She couldn’t even articulate the words in her own mind.

There was no way in hell. She was Louise Belcher and—

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Logan was looking down at her with concern etched into his face.

“Was it the fries?” a lopsided grin made its way onto his face.

“No, I’m just…tired is all.”

Nope, nope, nope—

“Louise, it’s only six thirty.”

She hated the stupid grin on his face, how his normally pissed face lightened up just slightly when he smiled—

But even still, there was no way in hell that she _liked_ Logan Bush.

Louise never _liked_ anybody. At least, not in any way like that. She liked explosives and murder mysteries she used to watch late at night with her dad and making fun of Tina and even some of Gene’s stupid songs but she didn’t like Logan. Because he was too tall and too annoying and too disgusting.

She should have stopped thinking about him right then and there, but it was hard when her hand was on his shoulder and he was standing right there in front of her.

“Song’s over anyway.” Logan said, stepping away from her. They had been too close. Too close for Louise’s conscious liking. “But that was…enjoyable, I guess.”

Another song started up on Gene’s stereo. The entire band was starting to take a break before the second half of the night.

Louise breathed a laugh. “Yeah. I think I’m gonna head home.”

“ _Already_?”

“Why don’t you try flipping burgers all day?”

Louise went to tell her parents that she was going to head home. Before leaving, she turned back to see Logan heading over to talk with Gene. They were apparently in a very engaged conversation that involved a lot of hand gestures.

Nope, she felt nothing. Because that was what she was good at feeling.

Nothing.


	8. poison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw in this chapter for drinking/drunkenness

“Louise, I understand you’re upset about something, but you have to move. I need to clean these seats.”

Louise was currently sprawled along one of the booth seats, her feet propped up against the wall and an arm slung across her eyes. But at the sound of Tina’s monotonous voice, she removed her arm and looked up at an upside-down Tina.

“T! Just the person I need to talk to!”

“Oh, okay. Can we talk _after_ I clean this booth, maybe?”

Louise made a half-hearted effort to move out of Tina’s way. When she was finished, Tina slid into the seat across from her and Louise sat up, leaning against the wall.

“So, what is it?”

Louise slumped in her seat. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”

“Telling what?” Tammy hopped over and slid into the seat next to Tina. She folded her hands on the table and leaned towards Louise, who was currently giving her a _look_.

“It’s none of your business, Tammy.”

“Um, well, I beg to differ. If it was none of my business, why would you discuss it in front of me? _Loudly_ , I might add.”

“We weren’t being loud and you know it.”

Tina sighed impatiently. “Just tell me what’s wrong, Louise.”

Louise’s eyes flickered briefly to Tammy, whose dark eyes were held at rapt attention. She would find out eventually, anyhow. It was just a known fact. Tammy had been popular in middle and high school because of her knack for scrounging up the most hidden secrets and molding them into full blown rumors.

Things hadn’t really changed much.

“I maybe—kind of—like someone?” Louise lifted a shoulder.

Where Tina smiled, Tammy _exploded_. She banged her hands loudly against the countertop.

“Who? Who is it?” When Louise didn’t answer quickly, she piped up her own suggestions. “Do I know him? Does he live nearby?”

Louise sighed, turning to her older sister. “Can we expel her now?”

“What? You can’t do that! Tina, she can’t expel me, can she?”

“Just let her stay, Louise.” Tina replied calmly. Louise threw her head back.

“Anyway, you don’t have to tell me who it is. I mean, I’d like for you to, but it’s no biggie. Do you have his number?”

“Yes,”

“Give him a call or text him. Ask him out on a date.”

Louise held her hands up. “Whoa, whoa, _Tina_ . You’re misunderstanding me here. I’m asking how to get _rid_ of it.”

Tina knitted her brows together. “Rid of what?”

She gestured vaguely to her chest. “These—what are they called?—feelings. They’re disgusting.”

“You don’t get rid of feelings, Louise.”

“Oh, cut the crap, T. You fall in love with practically every guy you see. You get rid of those feelings, don’t you?”

“Not purposely.”

Louise groaned, putting her head to the table. “This conversation is pointless.”

“I’ll say.” Tammy rose from her seat. “If you’re not going to tell me who it is, I’m out.” And with that, she left Tina and Louise alone.

Tina still looked concerned for Louise, her mouth pinched into a frown. “Who is it, by the way, Louise? Will you at least tell me now that Tammy’s gone?”

Louise slumped further down on her seat. “It’s _Logan_.”

Her older sister reeled back. “Oh, wow. Okay.”

“ _Knew it!_ ” Gene said as he paraded by their table.

“Shut up, Gene.”

“Look, Louise, I know this is the first guy you’ve actually liked before, so it’s hard on—”

“This isn’t the first guy I’ve liked!”

“Celebrity crushes don’t count, Louise.” Her eyes shifted as she paused, then added, “Or best friends with benefits.”

Louise kicked her feet against the seat as she folded her arms. “Tina, I _hate_ him though. Really. He isn’t that good looking and his breath always smells and he always has to give his two-cents on everything. Even when I didn’t ask for it! Which I never do, by the way.” She failed to mention how she had taken to following his advice as of late.

Tina gave her a knowing smile. “You’ve got it bad.”

“ _Tiiiiina_ ,” Louise whined, kicking her feet harder.

“Okay, listen, Louise. If you want whatever you feel for him to go away, just ignore it. Try not to think about him more than you have to. That’s all I have to say.”

That was going to be hard, especially since there was still that small part of her that didn’t want to stop thinking about him.

Next time she saw him, she’d be sure to slap him. Maybe that would help.

“So, _ladies_ , what is it we’re talking about?” Gene was leaning over the back of Louise’s seat.

Tina answered him before Louise could give a no-nonsense, sarcastic response. “Louise is in love with Logan.”

Louise turned her attentions back to her sister. “ _Love_ —” she scoffed.

“Is much too weighty of a word to be throwing around at your age, young lady.” Gene finished.

She groaned and lay back down on the seat with her legs up against the wall. She squeezed her eyes shut tight.

“Love knows no age, Gene. It just happens.” Tina added.

“I’m gonna kill both of you.” Louise muttered.

 

* * *

 

“Foul? There are no _fouls_ in air hockey.”

Jacob shrugged as he put the disk back into position. “I call it like I see it.”

Logan grabbed his bottle of beer from the edge of the board and chugged it. He figured he’d need that extra haze if he was going to survive losing another game to Jacob.

After high school, Jacob had went overseas because 1) his family was loaded and 2) he didn’t have Cynthia as a mother to force him to go to college. But now he was back in town and staying with Logan, which was fine by him. But he was betting this next round on ownership of his bed for the night and there was no way in hell he was sleeping in the guest bedroom.

Jacobs hit the disk and Logan narrowly blocked it. “Scotty works here, yeah?”

“Yeah. My best employee.”

They both had a good laugh over that considering its chances of legitimacy was relatively slim.

“Anyway, you won’t _believe_ what I passed on my way here, man.” Jacob continued.

“Yeah?”

“That _burger_ joint you used to work at! It’s still in business!”

Logan couldn’t ignore the way his pulse thrummed with the mention of Bob’s Burgers. Whether it was because he couldn’t just expose to Jacob that he _liked_ their food or if it was how all thoughts of it led to Louise, he couldn’t tell.

He hoped it was the former.

“Yeah, they’re alright.”

Jacob stopped the disk with his hand, pausing the game. “Alright? Don’t they have that girl working there? The one who blew spit balls at you from a vent?”

Logan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “Yeah, she’s alright.”

Jacob hit the disk and started their game up again. Within twelve seconds he had scored. In fairness, he had caught Logan off guard.

“Well, she must have grown up a lot if you think she’s ‘alright’.”

Logan shrugged. “You know I guess she has.” He hadn’t really given it a seconds thought before he’d decided to pick a feud with her again.

“Does she come by here a lot?”

“Occasionally,”

“You go by there a lot?”

“More than occasionally.”

Jacob once again stopped the game as Logan reached down to grab another bottle of beer from the cooler at his feet. Technically drinks weren’t allowed in the arcade, but it was after hours and Logan was technically in charge. And technically Logan should have been watching his alcohol intake considering the topic they were approaching, which was one where he couldn’t risk to be too loose-lipped. But Logan had come in here with plans to get semi-wasted and he planned to follow through.

“Hold the bus. You _like_ her, don’t you, bro?”

Logan finished chugging his beer and swallowed. His vision was beginning to get dizzy and he had to hold onto the air hockey table to keep balanced. “What are you talking about?”

“God, you’re so obvious.” Jacob shook his head. “Gotta say, you’ve got interesting taste. I mean—”

“Hey, I don’t like her, man. Okay?”

He held his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, sure. Whatever.” He picked up the game again and they continued on like that in silence for several seconds.

“What’s her name again? Lola? It’s some olden name, right?”

Logan sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. His brain was telling him that standing up straight was too much effort, so he leaned down on his elbows. “It’s _Louise_.” He muttered.

Jacob clicked his fingers. “ _That’s_ right. Louise. How old’s she now? Sixteen?”

“No, you pervert.” Logan finally managed to score, but Jacob didn’t really seem to care about the game anymore. “She’s twenty.”

“She in college?”

Logan shook his head, then shrugged, but Jacob seemed to ignore this complicated answer.

“You’re a good match.”

“What?” Logan’s hearing was starting to become a little fuzzy, too.

“You and her. You’re a good match. She doesn’t take any of your shit and you don’t take any of hers.”

Jacob beat him by a landslide.

 

* * *

 

He was drunk. Louise could tell almost immediately after he walked in through the restaurant’s door. She could smell it on him after a while, but it was clear from how he fumbled inside, throwing himself down on the nearest booth.

“There you are. I was starting to get worried you’d never show.” She went to the kitchen to finish up his burger. “You’ve been stopping by here so often to eat I didn’t think you’d ordered it to go.”

He waved a hand wildly at her. “ _Noooo_ , cours’ not.” He paused to spread himself out on the booth, stretching out his legs and resting his arms across the back of the seat, smacking his lips. “ _Louu-eese._ ” He snorted. “You haf a stooped name.”

The insult breezed over Louise’s head, because he was drunk and she had a feeling he’d be saying a lot of things he didn’t mean tonight.

But she just couldn’t deal with that right now.

She was packing his food into a to-go bag and when she got to the napkins, an idea struck her. It was made on a whim and she didn’t really have any time to regret it or consider her choice of words.

 _Good luck at the cook-off, loser. You’ll need it. Love, Louise_ , she scrawled in Sharpie on one of the napkins. She smiled at her work, knowing he wouldn’t read it until tomorrow, while he was in bed sick, nursing a serious hangover.

“Well, you’re lucky it was me closing tonight. Tina wouldn’t be as forgiving, surprisingly. She plays hard by the rules when it comes to this place.” She put his burger in the bag and carried it out to him.

Watched him fumble as he tried to sit up, his watery eyes widening.

“Sorry, bud, can’t eat it here. We’re closing. So, is there anyone I can call to…pick you up? Or can you manage?” She placed the paper bag on the table in front of him and looked down at him as he struggled to form words.

“ _Noooo_ , Woo-eeze. I—I was gonna—we was gonna look ofer my apardament!” He waved a hand dismissively. “Finasees and stuff. Go over how you were gonna room with me.”

“No need. I’m going back to college, so I won’t need a place to stay anymore.”

“Oh,” he looked down into his lap.

“Soo, should I call anyone?”

Logan clasped his hands between his legs and pivoted to face her. When he looked up at her, his eyes couldn’t quite focus on her face and instead turned towards his nose. “Nope.”

“No? You seem too drunk to walk back by yourself.” Louise put a hand on her hip.

He looked quite offended at that, and stood up a little too quickly. He had to balance himself on the seat and nearly tripped over his feet twice. “’m _fine_ , Woo-eeze _Burper_ —”

“Belcher—”

“’m _so_ not drunk and woo _know_ it!” He jabbed a finger into her chest.

Louise heaved a great sigh. “Oh my God.” She lifted his finger from her chest, catching him by surprise when she pulled his arm around her shoulders.

“ _Whatareyou—_ ”

“Can’t believe I’m doing this.” She hated the small part of her that wanted to not stop thinking about him and the part that wanted to dance with him and wanted to carry his drunk ass home.

She was becoming completely pathetic.

It was hard with someone at least five inches taller than her leaning against her, but she managed to hobble over and grab the restaurant’s keys from their stand, shut off the lights, and bring them both outside.

She was fumbling with the keys to lock to door when she felt a weight fall against her head. She expected to see him fast asleep when she turned her head to peer at him, but was taken aback to see he was actually _sniffing_ her head.

“Logan, are you _smelling_ my hair?”

He drew his head back and blinked a few times before frowning at her. “Don’t be so ascended. It smells _fine_ , by the _way_.”

Louise internally groaned as she finished locking the door behind her, struggling to pivot both of them in the direction of his place. She sensed something flick her ear.

“What do you want _now_ , idiot?” she was in no mood to be gentle with him. Sure, she was going out of her way to drag him home, but it didn’t mean anything and was no reflection of her current mood.

As they trudged on, he twirled his free hand around his own ear. “I jus’ noticed. You’ve got _thiiings_ on your ears.”

Louise reached her hand up to touch her earrings. “They’re called piercings, dumbie.”

Logan jerked his head back. “Sounds dangerous.”

“You won’t think that when you’re sober. But, yes. They are dangerous. Very dangerous.”

“ _Wow_ ,” he breathed, his breath misting in the cool night air in front of him.

Louise smiled to herself and felt something in her stomach Tina might have called _affection_ or _warmth_ , but definitely not _love_.

It was when she had Logan propped up against the side of his building that he decided to lean down close to her ear and whisper, “I’ve got a buddy—thas’ a term for _friend_ yaknow?—stayin’.” He swallowed loudly as Louise groaned.

“ _Logan,_ telling me that could have saved us from this whole mess! Why didn’t you have me call him?”

He pouted, his forehead creased. “Mean,”

“Ugh,” she turned away from him as she banged on the door because if Logan hadn’t told her about his friend staying over, he sure as hell wouldn’t give her his keys.

A guy who looked to be about Logan’s age in need of a good shave and sporting a baseball cap turned backwards greeted them. His face broke out into a jolly grin as he spread his arms out wide.

“ _There_ you are!” he reached for Logan, but Louise stepped back.

“What the _hell_? Couldn’t have bothered to show a little more care for your friend?”

He looked down at her distastefully. “He’s a grown-ass man. Does whatever he wants and who am I to stop him?”

“Sorry, I was under the impression you were his _friend_.”

She heard Logan “oooooh” from beside her and rejected the urge to elbow him in the ribcage because what would that prove to this clown?

“Whatever,” Louise shoved Logan forward a little too harshly, “I don’t want to take care of him anyway. Just… give him some coffee and—and this.” She handed the guy his to-go bag. “Though I’m sure it’s already cold.”

“--Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it.” And with that she turned and left.

“Haf a good night, Woo-eeze!” she heard Logan call out from behind her.

She didn’t turn back or respond because she couldn’t risk letting his friend see her smile after leaving on such a note.


	9. got to my head

Logan Barry Bush was a rotten, good-for-nothing liar. Louise had come to half of that conclusion long ago, but the “liar” part came to full fruition on the morning of the cook-off. She hadn’t seen him since his case of drunkenness, but there he was, warming up his grill before the competition officially took off.

“I thought you said you weren’t doing the cooking?”

He glanced up at her. “Now I am. Besides, isn’t that technically _good_ for you?”

She raised a brow in response.

His mouth made an ‘O’ shape. “Right. You want to win on your own terms.”

“That’s not what—”

He held up a hand to cut her off. “I know, I know, Louise. Trust me, I understand.”

Louise shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “I hope you’re good.”

“Do you?” he laughed to himself as he glanced down. Then, he leaned forward on the table so that his shoulders were bunched around his ears. “I wanna apologize. For the other night.”

“Hm? Oh right. That.” She hadn’t forgotten. Maybe it was because her hoodie still smelled like beer or maybe it was because she couldn’t stop thinking about the fall of his face when she’d told him she wasn’t going to be rooming with him. “Yeah, you know, I’ve never been a fan of nicknames.”

“Nicknames? What did I call you?”

“’Woo-eeze’, I believe.” She grinned wickedly.

Logan ran a hand through his hair. “God, I was so wasted. I don’t remember anything. Wait—no I do. I, um, wanted to tell you, also—in addition to my apology, um,” he coughed, “I’m glad you decided to go back to school.”

“Oh really?”

“Really.”

Louise knew her heart shouldn’t have soared the way it did, bunching up in her throat. Knew she shouldn’t have valued his opinion and praise as much as she did.

“Thanks, Logan. Not that I care or anything.”

He grinned. “Of course,”

“Alright, people, we’re starting up in five!” Chuck, the host, was making his way to the stage, throwing a soda can in the trash as he did so.

Logan slipped his phone out of his pocket. “I better text Scotty to get his ass over here.”

“Yeah, I should probably get to my station. The host’s got some beef with my dad, so I probably shouldn’t ruin our chances by consorting with the enemy.”

“’Consorting’?” He raised a brow. “Interesting word choice.”

Louise frowned as she turned and headed back to her station, giving finger guns to Zeke as she passed by.

“So,” she lightly punched her dad in the arm, “How you feelin’, Dad?”

Bob’s gaze was firmly fixed on Chuck who was glaring bitterly at his phone from the front of the stage. “I’m feeling like they should have gotten a new host.”

“Huh? Oh yeah. Well, audiences love him. What can you do? Besides,” she said, “Like you said, we’ve got this in the bag.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. And anyway,” he turned his gaze away from Chuck, “I do get to spend some bonding time with my daughter.”

“Psh. Stop it, Dad, you’re being gross.”

“Okay,” Bob chided.

Scotty finally came running onto the stage and not even a minute later, the competition began. Louise liked to think she worked well under pressure. She was always good at staring contests with Tina where Gene would yell in their ears to try and distract them. Louise would win a solid eight out of ten times, an impressive feat against Tina.

Working with her dad was a whole other thing, though. She loved him, really, and they generally worked well together, but Bob wasn’t the best under pressure, where he became almost outright delirious.

When she handed the tomatoes to him when he told her to, he whisper-shouted, “We can win this! We’re gonna win, Louise!” And Louise had let out a laugh. “O-okay, Dad, I get it.”

Chuck came by to question each of the contestants, but it came as no surprise how much he pestered Bob.

“I’m here with Bob Belcher, former _loser_ .” He said into the cameras. “And it looks like today he brought his _new_ wife, what’s your name, sweetheart?”

Louise scowled at him. “You idiot, I’m—”

“She’s my daughter.” Bob interrupted before she could say anything more offensive.

“Oh, okay. You’re getting old, huh, Bob?” Chuck held the microphone out to him.

“Uh, sure, I guess. That…tends to happen with the passage of time.”

“Always a class act, huh? So what’re we going with today?”

Bob smiled at that, eager to share what he was making. “Well, Chuck, this time around we’ve decided to go with something a little more _classic_ : a cheeseburger.”

Chuck considered this. “Not one of your crappy puns this time? Sounds boring. Moving on, folks…”

“I knew we should have gone with _my_ idea.” Louise muttered.

“Relax, Louise, we’re gonna win anyway.” Bob whispered.

As it turned out, he was right.

The judges tasted Logan’s burger first. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t pass over well with them. While several _did_ reach for something to drink, no one seemed to be running off to the nearest bathroom, which was a good sign.

Logan shrugged sheepishly in response to Chuck’s question of “What do you think went wrong, Logan?” and Louise didn’t miss the way he looked over at her, folding his arms and giving her a wink. Her stomach twisted, but she was angry at him, so she tried to force a frown, but it must not have worked well enough to conceal her smile, because she heard her dad mutter behind her.

“Oh God,”

“What?” she turned to look at him to see he was looking at her. “Did we forget something, Dad?”

Bob’s eyes were unwavering in their focus on her. “I—you—”

“C’mon, Dad, can you at least spit it out before the judges come over or will you wait until after?” Louise muttered.

Bob swallowed audibly. “You—do you like _Logan_?”

“What? Psh. No, Dad, don’t be ridiculous.” Louise scoffed.

“I mean, if you do that’s fine. I like him and he’s—”

“What is this, _fifth grade_?” Gene shouted from the crowd, hanging over the guard rail.

“Yeah, less yapping more snacking.” Tina added.

The judges seemed to agree. They commended Zeke’s burger, but ultimately Bob’s was the clear winner.

“Oh my God! We won! Louise, we won something!” he pressed her into a rare hug, into which Louise cringed. He hopped over to Tina, Gene, and Linda. “Lin! Lin, we won!”

Chuck reacted with an eye roll and an apathetic drop of the microphone.

While Bob traded hugs with Tina and Gene, Louise shook hands with the rest of the competitors, pointedly looking Logan in the eye, who gave her an appreciative nod. Louise forced a smile onto her face, otherwise ignoring the way her heart rate accelerated.

She didn’t know _what_ her dad saw, but his prediction wasn’t right. At all.

 

* * *

 

Louise isn’t exaggerating when she says they were _packed_ . They were so full that most orders were being made to go or people decided to mill about, standing around eating their burgers since there were hardly any seats left. This, of course, rubbed against Louise’s nerves because they were kind of _in her way_.

But she managed to brush her irritation aside when she caught sight of her dad. He was practically _glowing_ and whatever made her dad happy made her happy.

Whatever.

Linda’s happiness, however, wore off after its due time. She was untying her apron when she called back into the kitchen. “Louise, I need you on register duty! I’m gonna go take a hot bath.”

“What about the dishes?”

“Gene can do that. Gene, honey, you’re on dish duty!”

“What is it I’m exactly _dishing_ out?”

Louise couldn’t exactly refuse her offer. Anything was better than dish duty, even dealing with customers.

Like Tammy.

“You’ve been visiting for a week, yet you decide to finally order something _now_? When we’re busy?” Louise sneered as she sidled up behind the counter.

Tammy pouted. “I’ll have a plain cheeseburger. That’s low cal, right? Do you serve salads?”

Louise snorted and put her order in for a cheeseburger.

Faces blurred into one another as time went on and Louise was close to passing out when Logan decided to show his face.

“Ugh, what do you want?” Louise leaned against the counter to support herself.

Logan’s eyes flicked above her head. “Nothing on the menu. I wanted to ask you about something.”

He rummaged in his pocket before slipping out the napkin Louise had left in his to-go bag. The Sharpie hadn’t faded. He slid it across the counter to show her.

“Look, if you’re not ordering anything, we’ve kind of got a line so—”

“Why does it say ‘love’?” she expected to see some semblance of sarcasm or humor in his eyes, but was surprised to see he was mostly serious. Mostly.

Louise heaved a sigh. “Why are you just bringing this to my attention now, Logan?”

“Because I just got around to seeing it.” He lifted a shoulder. “I’ve had it sitting in the fridge since that night.”

“Look, Logan, if you’re asking me, you’re taking this a _little_ too seriously. It’s supposed to be funny. Ironic.” She forced a laugh. “It’s not like I love you or anything, soo. There.”

Logan pulled back, laughing as he slipped the napkin into his back pocket. “You should have seen the look on your face, Belcher.”

“Wait—”

“I’m not an _idiot_ —”

“Arguable—”

“I know you don’t love me. I was just messing with you.”

Louise was getting annoyed now. She didn’t like to be played. Especially on her own turf. “So you’re not gonna order anything?”

He considered her question before shaking his head. She could tell he was suppressing another laugh, so she waved him on to leave.

As he cast one mocking glance back at her from the door, Louise couldn’t help but think she was digging herself another hole.

 

* * *

 

“It’s in your head, Louise. You’re not digging any literal holes.”

“But, T, I can’t _take_ it anymore.”

“Fine. Then just tell him.”

“Oh, right, Tina, like I can just go up to him and tell him.”

“Sure. I do it all the time. It’s not that hard to tell a boy you like him, Louise.”

“Just _fake_ it ‘till you _make_ it, sister!”

“No one asked you, Gene.”

 

* * *

 

It’s around nine that business started to dwindle and right before ten that they brought the party upstairs into the apartment. The party being everyone sitting on the couch listening to Bob recount all the highlights from the day.

The restaurant closed at ten anyway.

Louise lingered because she was hungry and she wasn’t going to let the extra burger she had just grilled up go to waste.

She was sitting at the counter listening to the hum of the lights above her when she heard the bells hanging over the door jingle.

“We’re closed!” she said around a mouthful of burger.

“You guys should give out special VIP passes so people can buy your burgers after hours.”

Louise spun her stool around to glare at Logan. He was leaning against the nearest booth and she gave him a disinterested look as she bit into her burger.

“Even if we did do that, we wouldn’t give one to _you_.”

He mocked offense and Louise rolled her eyes, setting her food down and already making her way into the kitchen. She started up the grill.

“Why is it you felt the need to inconvenience me by coming here after we closed?”

Logan sat at the bar and drummed his fingers against the countertop. He lifted his head to look at her through the window. “I thought you already knew the answer to that.” He looked back down as he paused. “Thought you’d be so packed that you wouldn’t be free until you were closed.”

“That’s really dumb logic, but I wouldn’t expect any better from you.”

He snorted. “You know, we actually got some business over at my place. Granted, not as much as you guys did.”

Louise groaned as she slid his plate in front of him, throwing herself onto the stool next to him. “Ugh, enough about you.”

He looked humorously at her while she sipped soda through a straw. “Well, how did you guys handle business?”

“Okay, I guess.” She folded her arms on the counter and leaned her head forward. “I’m tired.”

And she was. Her hair was falling out of its pigtails and she was pretty sure she hadn’t used the bathroom in at least eight hours.

“Ah,” Logan straightened his tie. “The struggle of fame.”

Louise peeked a look at him and felt something click in her head. “That’s not _all_.”

He frowned down at her. “What do you mean?”

She kicked her feet against the bottom of the counter. “God, how does Tina do it?” she muttered to herself.

“How does Tina do what?”

She was really going to have to get better at whispering to herself.

Louise pulled back, tugging on her hair. “God, calm down, Logan! I _like_ you, okay?” she rolled her head to look at him before staring into her lap. “Are you happy?”

“Whoa ho ho, you _like_ me?” Logan rose from his seat, his hands out in front of him. “Louise Belcher _likes_ me?” He was grinning stupidly and Louise hated it.

“Do I have to say it in Spanish, Logan? _Si_ , _me gustas_.” she shoved her hands into her sleeves.

“ _Wow_. Just—wow. That’s unbelievable and so—”

“Gross? I know.”

“I was gonna say unexpected, but yeah. That.” He whistled as he shoved his hands into his pants pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I can’t believe this. You have a _crush_ on me. What are you, in love with me?”

Louise didn’t respond. The smile slowly fell from Logan’s face.

“Wait—oh God, you’re being serious?”

Louise threw her head back down on the table, knowing running away from this wasn’t going to solve anything. She’d endure Logan’s taunting and teasing, then she’d continue to ignore and shove whatever _feelings_ she had for him away.

“ _Louise_ ,” his voice was softer this time, filled with so much unexpected care, something she had never really thought him capable of, that it caused her to raise her head—only slightly, though.

“I, um—same.” He said.

Louise narrowed her eyes at him. “I same? What does that mean, _Logan_?”

“I, also, as well, love you. I love you.” His eyes were unwavering in their hold on hers, his eyebrows turned up just slightly, pinched together with something unrecognizable—care and a tenderness Louise wasn’t used to.

She snorted. “Okay, weirdo.”

She knew what was going to happen next, but only because of years of experience. She had gotten used to knowing when Rudy was going to try to make a move on her and usually she could figure out a way to block his moves one way or another. But she didn’t make any attempt this time.

Logan crossed the small space between them, taking her face in his hands and she tugged him forward by his tie and kissed him. Of course, there was a small part of her telling her how gross this was, but she finally managed to ignore that part, pulling Logan closer by his tie.

Because she _liked_ Logan—hell, maybe she was starting to love him—and, at this moment, this felt like a perfect way to tell him. He was bending over where she still sat on her stool and he may have mumbled, “Louise, this is hurting my neck,” against her mouth, but she only muttered back, “Shut up, Logan,” and pulled him closer, because, right then, she couldn’t help but think this was a lot better than slapping him.

Louise finally pulled back, resting her forehead against his. Logan’s eyes flicked between hers.

“I, also, as well, love you, too, you know that, right?” Louise quipped, to which Logan breathed a laugh at.

“So, uh, when do I meet you parents?” she said shakily.

Logan drew back, rolling his eyes. “Oh, God, I don’t even wanna _think_ about that.”

“So, don’t,” Louise lifted a shoulder. He looked back down at her and smiled, leaning down to kiss her again just as they heard a toilet flush from the restaurant’s bathroom.

It was ridiculous, how Logan stumbled back. Instead of just sitting at the stool next to her, he took several, unsteady backwards steps before landing in a booth seat, trying to feign nonchalance.

Louise frowned. “Maybe it’s just a—”

“I would _not_ use that bathroom for several hours.”

“Gene!” Louise rose from her seat, her hands clenched at her sides.

“ _What_ ?” Gene huffed, before pointing an accusatory finger at her. “Look here, I’m doing us _all_ a favor! How would you have liked it if I used our own bathroom, _hm_?”

Louise sighed as she sat back down, rolling her eyes. “Just—leave, Gene.”

“No ‘thank you’? _Fine_ . No respect from this family.” He strode to the door, but before leaving, he cast one glance backwards and said, “By the way, I love you guys, _too_.”

That left them in an ineffable silence, which Logan broke.

“Think he heard us?”

But Louise had already moved on from the situation, spinning her chair around to face him. “Ha. You like me.”

“Could have had me fooled, too.” He rose and grabbed a fry from her plate, popping it in his mouth. He bent down to kiss her on the head and she shoved him away.

“ _Disgusting_ ,”

He turned to leave, laughing to himself. “Have a good night, Louise.”

“You, too, dumbass.” She muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

He did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand that's a wrap! thanks so much for all the kudos, comments, ect. i really appreciate it! i had a lot of fun writing this and, honestly, i love this show and the characters and writing these characters so much this probably isn't the last i'll write for this fandom so yay! thanks again! :)


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